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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 10-7-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Sean O'Connell Show, happy hump day everybody.
0:03
Speaker 1: Good to have.
0:05
Speaker 2: You with us.
0:29
Speaker 1: It's a youth zone Wednesday. So Sammy Moore is going
0:32
Speaker 1: to stop by in about 30 minutes. The voice of
0:34
Speaker 1: the Kansas Jayhawks, Brian Haney in an hour. And at
0:40
Speaker 1: one o'clock we go between the pipes with Adrian Denny
0:44
Speaker 1: to talk Utah mammoth, a beautiful win in New Jersey
0:49
Speaker 1: for the Utah mammoth last night. This is a really
0:53
Speaker 1: good hockey team right now. Trochek scored his first mammoth goal.
0:58
Speaker 1: McKenzie Weger on the board, Clayton Keller with just a
1:02
Speaker 1: gorgeous goal. You're really Nick Schmaltz. Nick Schmaltz is killing
1:08
Speaker 1: it right now. Nick Schmaltz, I think has five goals
1:10
Speaker 1: on the season. If you want to go back to
1:12
Speaker 1: the survey, you know what? It only ran for one day,
1:16
Speaker 1: but Schmaltz right now, the leading goal scorer for the
1:20
Speaker 1: mammoth tied for the lead in the NHL, if I'm
1:22
Speaker 1: not mistaken. And, of course, that will certainly extend over
1:26
Speaker 1: the 82-game regular season. Our guy Jack McBain, if you
1:32
Speaker 1: watched last night and you saw Jack McBain absolutely demolish
1:40
Speaker 1: Dylan from the New Jersey Devils in a fight after McBain,
1:47
Speaker 1: clean hit, Dylan took exception to it, and a little
1:51
Speaker 1: bit of a scuffle, kerfuffle, McBain, one of the more
1:56
Speaker 1: dominant clean victories you're going to find in a hockey fight.
2:01
Speaker 1: So if you watch that and you want to know
2:04
Speaker 1: a little bit more about his process for getting good
2:07
Speaker 1: at the fisticuffs on ice, go back and listen to
2:10
Speaker 1: the interview that Jack McBain did with us last week.
2:14
Speaker 1: It is in the on-demand section of the ESPN 700 sports.com website.
2:18
Speaker 1: You could find it on the app, the ESPN 700
2:21
Speaker 1: sports app. And we, I mean, I was kind of
2:24
Speaker 1: laughing at myself because I spent 10 minutes talking about
2:27
Speaker 1: fighting with him, but he's already been in like four
2:30
Speaker 1: fights this year. I love how much play, how much
2:33
Speaker 1: opportunity we get to repromote that old interview from mammoth
2:39
Speaker 1: media day. It was, We weren't at Media Day, but
2:42
Speaker 1: they were making players available on various radio stations and
2:46
Speaker 1: other places on Media Day. I love how much we
2:49
Speaker 1: get to repromote that because of how often he's getting
2:52
Speaker 1: into fights. Thank you, Jack McBain, for helping us recycle
2:57
Speaker 1: that interview. And in all seriousness, you did point Blake,
3:01
Speaker 1: ask him what his process was, and he gave some
3:04
Speaker 1: pretty good insight and answers that he took the questioning seriously,
3:08
Speaker 1: even though he could have just laughed it off. and
3:10
Speaker 1: told you something that didn't matter. He actually gives you
3:12
Speaker 1: a pretty good insight on his process as a, as
3:15
Speaker 1: a hockey fighter. And he's given us plenty of opportunity
3:18
Speaker 1: to point you back to that interview. And, you know,
3:21
Speaker 1: we were talking about this before the show started, James.
3:23
Speaker 1: I think that maybe we underestimated how important his physicality
3:31
Speaker 1: is and, and was to this mammoth hockey team back
3:34
Speaker 1: in that Vegas playoff series that, you know, he wasn't
3:37
Speaker 1: a hundred percent and, just trying to kind of like
3:39
Speaker 1: reintegrate himself and figure out what he could and could
3:43
Speaker 1: not do. I think this version of Jack McBain helps
3:46
Speaker 1: to change that series a little bit. And it was
3:47
Speaker 1: a really close series, obviously. And you got to give,
3:51
Speaker 1: you know, you don't relitigate, you don't rewrite history, but
3:54
Speaker 1: it makes you wonder. And hopefully he could stay healthy
3:57
Speaker 1: and continue to establish that, that physical presence on the
4:02
Speaker 1: ice for the Utah mammoth, because he, Look, teams are
4:05
Speaker 1: going to think twice about dirty hits. Teams are going
4:08
Speaker 1: to be careful about, you know, going after the wrong guy,
4:13
Speaker 1: committing penalties on the wrong guy on this mammoth roster
4:16
Speaker 1: when Jack McBain is there to enforce the written and
4:19
Speaker 1: unwritten rules. And we love it. So hopefully we can
4:23
Speaker 1: get him on again sooner than later and we can
4:25
Speaker 1: talk more about this. Utah football yesterday revealed some absolutely stellar,
4:38
Speaker 1: some absolutely stellar uniform modifications. A hand-painted white helmet. I
4:49
Speaker 1: think this is the first time we've had this level
4:53
Speaker 1: of artistic detail on a white helmet. Although I'm a
4:57
Speaker 1: big fan of the The Ute Proud white helmet. I'm
5:01
Speaker 1: a big fan of the Rose Bowl white helmet. That
5:07
Speaker 1: one looks really great, but this one, the iced out
5:11
Speaker 1: Utah script, the mountain range covered in snow. My reaction
5:18
Speaker 1: to it was probably similar to a lot of people's like, oh,
5:21
Speaker 1: these are beautiful, but would it be more appropriate later
5:24
Speaker 1: in the season? Would it be more appropriate for like
5:27
Speaker 1: a November game when you might actually have snow. Well,
5:31
Speaker 1: it turns out that the weather forecast is calling for
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Speaker 1: a turn and some moisture and maybe some snow descending
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Speaker 1: down to like 8,000, 9,000 feet. So the white caps
5:45
Speaker 1: off in the distance might be a reality for Saturday night.
5:48
Speaker 1: We'll see. I'm kind of like hoping for it now.
5:51
Speaker 1: So it matches the uniform. It matches those icy helmets
5:54
Speaker 1: a little bit better. At Real OC Sports. If you
5:58
Speaker 1: want to weigh in on your thoughts on the white helmets,
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Speaker 1: I put a poll out whether you love them, whether
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Speaker 1: you like them, or whether you're not really a big fan.
6:09
Speaker 1: Because there are levels to how much you like something, right?
6:13
Speaker 1: And the hand-painteds have been phenomenal. They've been really, really great.
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Speaker 1: I saw someone ranking their hand-painted helmets. Maybe we'll do that.
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Speaker 1: We could do that. 877... I always love to hear
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Speaker 1: from you. The hand-painted helmet, Armando, who does these helmets,
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Speaker 1: he's doing them for many different teams now in college football.
6:45
Speaker 1: The Mardi Gras helmets, the Tulane War, the Boise State,
6:50
Speaker 1: the Boise State 40th anniversary, it was the 50th anniversary
6:54
Speaker 1: of the Blue Turf. He did those. The Houston helmets
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Speaker 1: that you saw last week with the outer space, the
7:04
Speaker 1: galaxy helmets, the football galaxy helmets. There's a really cool
7:09
Speaker 1: breakdown video of how they added eight planets and Pluto.
7:14
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like the Navy does when they
7:19
Speaker 1: do their hand-painted helmet where your rank or your job
7:22
Speaker 1: in the Navy determines what helmets you're going to wear
7:25
Speaker 1: your position on the field determines what helmets you're going
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Speaker 1: to wear. And there's like, you know, different boats on
7:29
Speaker 1: the side of those helmets. They did that with the Houston.
7:34
Speaker 1: We have a problem space helmets last week. Some people had,
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Speaker 1: you know, various parts of the solar system on them
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Speaker 1: and like the further out planets. I didn't know about
7:45
Speaker 1: this when I was watching the game, but the planets
7:47
Speaker 1: that are further from the sun, there were fewer of
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Speaker 1: those distributed amongst the team, I guess, to, signify the
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Speaker 1: rarity of seeing those planets or whatever. So it's kind
7:58
Speaker 1: of cool. As they'd say, as they would say in
8:01
Speaker 1: star Wars, the outlying territories or whatever, the outer rim,
8:04
Speaker 1: the outer rim.
8:05
Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Uh, look, uh, really, really cool. And I've said it many,
8:11
Speaker 1: many times. I've said it on Twitter. I'll say it
8:13
Speaker 1: every time I get an opportunity, the ability for these
8:20
Speaker 1: players to have something that is like that artistically expressive, uh,
8:24
Speaker 1: as part of their uniform is phenomenal. It's just really cool.
8:29
Speaker 1: The goalie mask in the NHL is the ultimate version
8:32
Speaker 1: of this. And ESPN did a breakdown of all of them.
8:35
Speaker 1: And Veggie's got a new, he's got a new helmet.
8:38
Speaker 1: I haven't seen Kosa's mask up close and, and really
8:43
Speaker 1: done like the full breakdown. So hopefully someone can get
8:46
Speaker 1: that for us, some pictures on that, but Veggie's had
8:49
Speaker 1: great masks. His first year mask was the best with
8:53
Speaker 1: the dinosaurs. Um, this one is like a cartoonized Tusky
9:00
Speaker 1: on top of the helmet, very heavy mammoth theme. There's,
9:09
Speaker 1: there's just a fun element to the hand painted stuff.
9:13
Speaker 1: It brings, you know, the it's, it's very much for
9:15
Speaker 1: the fans. It's very much for engagement. It's very much
9:18
Speaker 1: for merchandise sales, probably a whiteout game like this one,
9:22
Speaker 1: but If you're going to roll out something special and
9:25
Speaker 1: you're going to do something unique, the idea that you
9:39
Speaker 1: get a better version of the white helmet, a better
9:47
Speaker 1: version of the branding in some people's minds that you
9:51
Speaker 1: get to incorporate a Utah script, which for the most part,
9:55
Speaker 1: we've seen that, that script on basketball, right? That, Utah
10:00
Speaker 1: like cursive has been basketball, Jersey type stuff, bringing it
10:04
Speaker 1: into the football realm and creating that crossover. I'm just
10:07
Speaker 1: a fan of all of it. So yeah. Why not
10:10
Speaker 1: bring it to football? Why not have the scripts font
10:14
Speaker 1: on football? football jersey or football helmet, like it looks
10:18
Speaker 1: good on the basketball uniforms. Why wouldn't it look good
10:22
Speaker 1: on football? I know maybe one thought is it's just
10:25
Speaker 1: not very common on football uniforms. When I can think
10:27
Speaker 1: of it, Oklahoma state has script Cowboys, right on there,
10:31
Speaker 1: some of their uniforms, but you don't see it very
10:33
Speaker 1: much on, you see it on baseball and basketball a
10:37
Speaker 1: lot more often than football, but it's got script. Oklahoma
10:41
Speaker 1: state does the script one Syracuse when they just do
10:45
Speaker 1: their cues. That's right. Syracuse does that. There's just, I
10:48
Speaker 1: don't know. There's a smattering of it, I guess across
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Speaker 1: the nation, but the, using it on the side of
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Speaker 1: the helmet and incorporating the mountains and the, the wintry,
10:58
Speaker 1: the icy kind of thing. Again, the only thing that
11:01
Speaker 1: might have made it better, like mid to late October,
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Speaker 1: you're going to get snow and ice on these mountains.
11:08
Speaker 1: So maybe if you do this a little bit later
11:10
Speaker 1: in the season, it matches the landscape a little bit better,
11:12
Speaker 1: but that's, that's being a little bit nitpicky. That's being
11:15
Speaker 1: probably too nitpicky. I think it's more of the psychological
11:19
Speaker 1: thing you want to portray more than the reality of
11:22
Speaker 1: like this is the weather right now i think it's
11:25
Speaker 1: like it doesn't have to be that on the nose
11:27
Speaker 1: you don't have to be that literal about everything where
11:30
Speaker 1: you're just like yeah that's it's snowy so we have
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Speaker 1: snow uniforms yeah you and like you come in here
11:37
Speaker 1: at night it's you you know over the years you're
11:41
Speaker 1: used to it being black in here but This year,
11:45
Speaker 1: we're going to freeze you out with our whiteout. I
11:47
Speaker 1: think that's a pretty good psychological metaphor. Cold world coming
11:50
Speaker 1: to Rice-Eccles Stadium if you're a visiting team. I mean, yeah,
11:53
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ways you can do it. What
11:55
Speaker 1: matters is that the team performs well, and hopefully they will.
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Speaker 3: 877-353-0700.
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Speaker 1: Tell me how you feel about that. This particular uniform,
12:05
Speaker 1: the whiteout with the white icy helmet, tell me how
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Speaker 1: you feel about all the hand-painted. I'm still... Is this hand-painted?
12:12
Speaker 1: This is how it is? Okay. It's hand-painted. That's awesome.
12:16
Speaker 1: They only do the one a year, though, right? Correct.
12:18
Speaker 1: So this is the only one that's going to happen
12:20
Speaker 1: this year, probably? Yeah, this will be the hand-painted for
12:23
Speaker 1: the year. I like it. I like the way it looks. Again,
12:27
Speaker 1: you've got to kind of mix it up, right? They've
12:29
Speaker 1: already done the two drum and feather helmets.
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Speaker 3: Yes.
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Speaker 1: Uh, the USS Salt Lake city one, while it was
12:35
Speaker 1: hard for people on television, maybe it wasn't the best
12:39
Speaker 1: look is the reaction. A lot of people got up
12:42
Speaker 1: close and what that represented and, you know, really cool
12:47
Speaker 1: veteran story, world war two story. The uniforms were awesome
12:51
Speaker 1: as a one-off. I don't want you to ever get
12:53
Speaker 1: to gray as another alternate, but that was a great.
12:56
Speaker 1: And of course the game, uh, and the story of
13:00
Speaker 1: the game and the achievement of winning that game of
13:02
Speaker 1: the season and whole season.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
13:05
Speaker 1: Uh, even leading up to the game, this from 77 34,
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Speaker 1: do players keep the helmet? I actually think, I actually
13:13
Speaker 1: think that the helmets now are used for fundraising purposes.
13:16
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm sure. I'm sure if you're a
13:19
Speaker 1: Devin damp here and you want your icy white helmet,
13:22
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can wink, wink, nudge, nudge. I know
13:25
Speaker 1: that they make, they're going to paint like, 200 of them.
13:29
Speaker 1: It's not just, you don't just do one for each
13:31
Speaker 1: player and not have any extras or any leftovers. Cause
13:34
Speaker 1: obviously in the game, you have to have some auxiliary,
13:36
Speaker 1: some backup helmets and things like that. I think double
13:39
Speaker 1: what they need. I think that most, most of the
13:42
Speaker 1: time now with these, uh, there's some backstock, but you
13:45
Speaker 1: probably have to know the right person. You probably have
13:48
Speaker 1: to be a donor already. You probably, and I I'm
13:51
Speaker 1: sure look, the Sean O'Connell on that team probably doesn't
13:55
Speaker 1: get to keep their hand painted helmet, right? Sorry about it.
13:58
Speaker 1: the Alex Smith on that team, the Devin Dampier might
14:01
Speaker 1: get to John who Hall, these people might get, you know, yeah,
14:05
Speaker 1: they might get to keep as many of them as
14:06
Speaker 1: they want. And by the way, I don't begrudge any
14:10
Speaker 1: of that at this point, because you're trying to elevate
14:14
Speaker 1: this program. You're trying to make sure that there's money
14:17
Speaker 1: in the coffers. You're trying to make sure that, you know, the,
14:20
Speaker 1: the next guy who you need on this roster has the,
14:25
Speaker 1: salary that he's looking for. And if I get a,
14:30
Speaker 1: you know, a beautiful office display piece for five grand
14:36
Speaker 1: or two grand or 1500 or whatever, but I mean,
14:40
Speaker 1: the helmet probably already costs just cost. I imagine is
14:43
Speaker 1: over a thousand dollars when you put the helmet and
14:46
Speaker 1: Armando's work in the paint itself and all that. So like,
14:50
Speaker 1: we're not here to talk about helmet supply chain, but
14:54
Speaker 1: The text coming in from 7734, do the players keep
14:58
Speaker 1: the helmet? If you're a senior, if you're a leader,
15:01
Speaker 1: if you're a captain, if you're a star on this team,
15:04
Speaker 1: I'm sure you get to keep your helmet. Everyone else
15:07
Speaker 1: probably has to hand that bad boy back. We're going
15:09
Speaker 1: to have to ask Devin next week if he gets
15:13
Speaker 1: to keep his helmet. We'll get with the players and
15:15
Speaker 1: ask them whether or not they get to keep their helmet.
15:18
Speaker 1: fancy helmets let me ask you this oc if they
15:21
Speaker 1: do auction it off to donors or whatever do you
15:26
Speaker 1: think because we've seen pictures of offensive line helmets how
15:30
Speaker 1: they get cracked and dented for every game that they
15:35
Speaker 1: play because they're just colliding into each other all the
15:38
Speaker 1: time what do What do you think they do with
15:41
Speaker 1: those compromised O-line, D-line helmets? Do you think those get
15:45
Speaker 1: given away too? Yeah, those are probably even cooler. That's awesome.
15:50
Speaker 1: That's a better story. Okay, so we've got... Like a
15:53
Speaker 1: cleaner quarterback helmet versus an O-line helmet. If you're watching
15:55
Speaker 1: on the YouTube, right? We've got these three beautiful Utah
15:58
Speaker 1: helmets in the background here, right?
16:02
Speaker 4: That is.
16:06
Speaker 1: A great selection of awesome helmets. Actual, not souvenir helmets.
16:10
Speaker 1: These are real helmets from the equipment room, from the
16:13
Speaker 1: equipment staff. Shout out to those guys over the years
16:15
Speaker 1: who've given us a little bit of off-state core. We've
16:18
Speaker 1: had these ones for a long time. If we had
16:19
Speaker 1: an icy white one that was all scuffed up and
16:24
Speaker 1: we were like, oh, this is Jai Moy's helmet. This
16:28
Speaker 1: is Sarahway Williams' helmet. From that 77-0 win over Kansas.
16:35
Speaker 1: That's speaking into new existence. That is a better story.
16:38
Speaker 1: So if you got to buy it, I actually sent
16:41
Speaker 1: a text and said, who do I need to talk
16:43
Speaker 1: to to buy one of those?
16:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.
16:44
Speaker 1: Cause they're sick and I love them. And honestly, we've
16:48
Speaker 1: had these for at least as long as I've been
16:50
Speaker 1: at the station coming on almost 10 years. These three
16:55
Speaker 1: in the studio here, OC, I don't think we've ever
16:58
Speaker 1: had a hand painted one. It'd be, we may need
17:02
Speaker 1: to add a hand painted one to the, to the collection.
17:04
Speaker 1: I keep saying this, but I have a, I have
17:08
Speaker 1: one of the Liberty bowl throwback hand painted, uh, silver ones,
17:12
Speaker 1: the Ohio state looking ones.
17:13
Speaker 4: Yeah.
17:14
Speaker 3: Yeah.
17:14
Speaker 1: I have one of those in my home office that
17:18
Speaker 1: I don't spend a lot of time in anymore. So
17:19
Speaker 1: I should probably bring it in here, put it on display.
17:21
Speaker 1: That'd be cool. I'm going to have to get like
17:23
Speaker 1: someone's label maker and put my name on it. Yeah.
17:27
Speaker 1: So that, so that it doesn't get Someone doesn't walk
17:31
Speaker 1: away with it. It doesn't get commandeered. Yeah, for sure.
17:34
Speaker 1: I would love either the USS Salt Lake City hand-painted
17:40
Speaker 1: or this ice one. Obviously, this wasn't a hand-painted one,
17:45
Speaker 1: but obviously the Rose Bowl, the first Rose Bowl one,
17:48
Speaker 1: the white helmet with the roses in would be in
17:52
Speaker 1: between the interlocking U would be incredible.
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Speaker 3: 877-353-0700.
17:55
Speaker 1: If you are someone who has collected all these helmets.
18:01
Speaker 1: You got the display. I'm talking to you, Albert.
18:03
Speaker 5: All right.
18:03
Speaker 1: I've seen the man cave. Oh, man. Shout out to Albert.
18:07
Speaker 1: Someone who's got all these helmets, like, send us a picture,
18:10
Speaker 1: just the full display, the full lineup of all the
18:13
Speaker 1: cool helmets. Because they're great. They're really, really, really great.
18:17
Speaker 1: Or the mini size, whatever you have. The way that
18:19
Speaker 1: Utah has maximized this branding, and I love it. So
18:23
Speaker 1: text it, 877-353-0700, how you feel about these white hand
18:25
Speaker 1: painted helmets. Before we get to Sammy Mora, there's a
18:31
Speaker 1: really interesting article on ESPN talking about if they're not starting,
18:38
Speaker 1: they're departing. And it's a conversation about the QB2 talent
18:43
Speaker 1: drain in college football. And it's particularly relevant when you're
18:49
Speaker 1: talking about depth for this Utah football team as the
18:53
Speaker 1: injury reports start coming out. Now you're four or five
18:56
Speaker 1: weeks into a season and now you're seeing like BYU
19:00
Speaker 1: this weekend is in trouble because they've got to try
19:03
Speaker 1: to stop Aiden Flora without Isaiah Glasker. Who's a really
19:10
Speaker 1: good linebacker for them. They have no Glasgow Uluwabe still healthy.
19:14
Speaker 1: Who's the other guy that's is a, is an offensive player.
19:17
Speaker 1: That's LJ Martin. That's right. The most important player aside
19:22
Speaker 1: from bear Bachmeier on that roster, the offensive player of
19:24
Speaker 1: the year in the conference is listed. Not as questionable,
19:27
Speaker 1: not as doubtful. He's on the BYU injury report. As
19:32
Speaker 1: out for Friday night. And I guess there's a possibility
19:35
Speaker 1: that you can upgrade from out, but they usually don't
19:38
Speaker 1: upgrade people from out to questionable. By the way, injury
19:43
Speaker 1: reports are brought to you by the advocates, Utah advocates, injury,
19:47
Speaker 1: personal injury attorneys. You did not deserve to be in
19:49
Speaker 1: an accident. You do deserve to have an advocate, Utah advocates.com.
19:54
Speaker 1: Let them know that OC sent you. So BYU Friday night,
19:59
Speaker 1: Tuesday night injury, initial injury report that we'd get it
20:03
Speaker 1: a day earlier came out early because BYU plays on
20:05
Speaker 1: Friday night. Now, Massively important to talk about depth right
20:10
Speaker 1: now because the backup running back for BYU also out.
20:15
Speaker 1: Sione Moa is out. LJ Martin is out. Isaiah Glasker
20:20
Speaker 1: is out. You've got Cialia Serra is coming back in.
20:24
Speaker 1: He was their linebacker number three, basically, to start the season.
20:28
Speaker 1: He's missed some time because of injury. He's back this week.
20:31
Speaker 1: But When the guys are just coming back, do you
20:34
Speaker 1: expect him to be at his best? Do you expect
20:36
Speaker 1: him to be fully healthy? BYU's got some trouble because
20:39
Speaker 1: Iowa State, if Iowa State plays this week like they
20:43
Speaker 1: did last week against West Virginia, not how they played
20:46
Speaker 1: against the University of Utah. Then BYU on a Friday
20:50
Speaker 1: night with Notre Dame coming in next week, a possible
20:53
Speaker 1: look ahead situation right here with a couple of your
20:55
Speaker 1: most important players out. Things could get a little bit
20:58
Speaker 1: dicey Friday night at Lavelle Edwards Stadium. And it brings
21:01
Speaker 1: you back to this conversation about depth and when you
21:04
Speaker 1: have it and when you don't. And the article in
21:06
Speaker 1: ESPN is very specifically geared toward quarterback play and geared
21:11
Speaker 1: towards QB number two. And they talk about, they go
21:15
Speaker 1: back to the recruiting cycle and they go back to
21:17
Speaker 1: talking about You know, everybody at Ole Miss trying to
21:22
Speaker 1: rally the troops and see if they could get Mikey
21:25
Speaker 1: Keene or Bo Perbula or Anthony Calandria to come in
21:29
Speaker 1: and be their backup quarterback. Now, Oregon has got a
21:32
Speaker 1: really nice backup quarterback situation with the Ryola kid. Utah,
21:37
Speaker 1: of course, has, we think, the best backup quarterback in
21:40
Speaker 1: the country. And backup quarterback is a misnomer when we're
21:44
Speaker 1: talking about Bird Ficklin because backup quarterbacks... don't play in
21:48
Speaker 1: every quarter of every game. Like a true backup quarterback
21:52
Speaker 1: doesn't play and isn't a feature part of your offense.
21:56
Speaker 1: Whatever he is, the QB1B or the QB2A, he's not
22:02
Speaker 1: a regular QB2. He is something different. He is a
22:07
Speaker 1: part of the fabric of the offense. Credit to him
22:10
Speaker 1: for being here still. Credit to Kevin McGiven. And most importantly,
22:13
Speaker 1: credit to this University of Utah football team, I knock
22:17
Speaker 1: on wood as I say all this because right now
22:20
Speaker 1: what you have at Utah, what you have through the
22:23
Speaker 1: first four weeks, is you have depth without needing depth.
22:28
Speaker 1: And I'm throwing up the air quotes for needing depth
22:30
Speaker 1: because everyone needs depth. But you have not had to
22:36
Speaker 1: because of injury. Thank goodness you have not had to
22:40
Speaker 1: because of attrition. play a second teamer, play a backup
22:45
Speaker 1: in a starting role, and then the backup to the
22:48
Speaker 1: backup becomes the second guy out there, and it just
22:52
Speaker 1: diminishes the overall effectiveness of your team. What Utah has
22:56
Speaker 1: done on both sides of the ball is they've given
22:58
Speaker 1: reps to, and they've given opportunities to, both on offense
23:02
Speaker 1: and defense, guys that are not the starter, the technical starter,
23:08
Speaker 1: but Their snap count doesn't differentiate all that significantly from
23:12
Speaker 1: the true starters. Like Trey Reynolds has done an awesome
23:17
Speaker 1: job and John who hall has done a great job,
23:20
Speaker 1: but Elijah Ellis has more havoc plays than both of
23:25
Speaker 1: those guys. Cyrus Polo has established himself as I think
23:30
Speaker 1: the best blitzer on this team, the most effective downhill
23:34
Speaker 1: rushing force on this team. And he's technically a quote
23:39
Speaker 1: unquote backup linebacker. That is where depth being handled this
23:42
Speaker 1: way by the coaching staff is so critically important to
23:46
Speaker 1: what Utah has been able to do through four games.
23:48
Speaker 1: And by the way, it's going to get more important
23:51
Speaker 1: in the next six games and the next eight games.
23:56
Speaker 1: This is a luxury right now because you don't need it.
24:01
Speaker 1: It is going to become a necessity at some point,
24:03
Speaker 1: because that's just how football seasons go. And again, I'm
24:07
Speaker 1: not just talking about linebackers. The example I used, uh, we,
24:10
Speaker 1: as we discussed earlier this week, as you heard Morgan
24:13
Speaker 1: Scali talking about this week, you've got really three safeties,
24:18
Speaker 1: maybe four that you could be comfortable playing in every situation.
24:24
Speaker 1: Rabbit Evans has been awesome. Uh, Jackson Benny is so versatile.
24:28
Speaker 1: You could put him back there in any, either of
24:30
Speaker 1: those safety roles. You've got The Tillman kid who, aside
24:35
Speaker 1: from one missed sack, has been pretty darn good this year.
24:39
Speaker 1: And Nate Ritchie has been absolutely incredible. Right? You look
24:44
Speaker 1: at the rest of the defensive backs. You got.
24:49
Speaker 1: Scooby is almost not being talked about enough because they're
24:52
Speaker 1: not throwing his way enough because he's doing his job
24:55
Speaker 1: so well.
24:56
Speaker 4: Right?
24:57
Speaker 1: I already mentioned Jackson Benny. You have to mention him
24:59
Speaker 1: because of all the nickel that he plays. He could
25:02
Speaker 1: also line up as a boundary corner or a field
25:05
Speaker 1: corner if you need him to, although they don't need
25:08
Speaker 1: him to right now because of Reed, because of Chenault.
25:16
Speaker 1: Bobo Chenault has been incredible. Like, you've got depth. They
25:20
Speaker 1: developed this depth. And credit to the coaching staff for
25:23
Speaker 1: developing this depth. during spring ball and during fall camp,
25:29
Speaker 1: but far more important and much more salient to what
25:32
Speaker 1: this article is discussing here is it's one of the
25:36
Speaker 1: more underrated things that quite frankly, I'm guilty of ignoring
25:40
Speaker 1: or overlooking when the whole coaching changeover and JJ Buchanan
25:47
Speaker 1: is leaving. Oh, dang it. John Henry Daly's leaving. Oh,
25:49
Speaker 1: dang it. Like the retention that this staff was able
25:53
Speaker 1: to pull off. has really been pretty remarkable because guys
25:58
Speaker 1: like Christian Ellis, Elijah Ellis, sorry, guys like Elijah Ellis
26:03
Speaker 1: had anywhere to go. They could go anywhere. Right. And
26:07
Speaker 1: they decided to stay with the program that gave them
26:10
Speaker 1: the shot out of high school and where dad's at
26:12
Speaker 1: and where they know they can be developed and it's
26:14
Speaker 1: paying off incredibly well. And he was probably the worst
26:18
Speaker 1: example to use because of course he wants to say
26:20
Speaker 1: his dad's here, right? If you're, If you're an incoming
26:23
Speaker 1: transfer or you're somebody who is now facing the uncertainty of, well,
26:28
Speaker 1: what's it going to be like with Morgan Scali as
26:30
Speaker 1: the head coach? What's it going to be like with
26:32
Speaker 1: a new position coach if, you know, I don't know
26:34
Speaker 1: this Odom guy. Do I want to play for him? Hey,
26:40
Speaker 1: you know, Jordan Gross, I hear good things about him
26:44
Speaker 1: as a player, but he's a high school coach. If
26:47
Speaker 1: you're somebody who's now potentially, if you're Zaraway Williams and
26:51
Speaker 1: you're just like, I finally get my chance to be
26:53
Speaker 1: a starter under the guy who developed me and he's gone,
26:56
Speaker 1: so what do I do now? We got to give
26:59
Speaker 1: credit to this coaching staff and to this roster that
27:03
Speaker 1: depth is becoming, now is the time of year where
27:06
Speaker 1: depth becomes an issue for football teams because now is
27:09
Speaker 1: the time where injuries start to pile up. Now is
27:11
Speaker 1: the time where somebody gets injured. hopefully not a season ender,
27:15
Speaker 1: but a bumper, a bruise. And your number two guy
27:17
Speaker 1: has to be your number one guy for two or
27:19
Speaker 1: three games. And now you learn how much time and
27:23
Speaker 1: effort you spent developing that guy. Now you learn how
27:27
Speaker 1: good you are at talent evaluation because the guy you
27:31
Speaker 1: pulled out of the transfer portal to be your starter,
27:33
Speaker 1: everyone already knew about him, but the individual that's been
27:36
Speaker 1: in your program since high school, that is his backup.
27:40
Speaker 1: Now you got to learn more about that kid. I mean, I'm,
27:45
Speaker 1: I'm incredibly impressed with the way that I can read
27:49
Speaker 1: an article on ESPN on the main page talking about,
27:54
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you know, what's hard for Georgia to
27:58
Speaker 1: have a good backup quarterback. You know, what's hard for
28:01
Speaker 1: Alabama to have the right guy. You know, it's really,
28:03
Speaker 1: really difficult for Oregon to somehow have pulled this off.
28:09
Speaker 1: You're none of those schools. From a financial standpoint, you're
28:13
Speaker 1: none of those schools from a reputation standpoint, and they're
28:16
Speaker 1: focused on QBs, and you have the best quarterback, backup
28:20
Speaker 1: quarterback in the nation. Here's the blurb about Bird Ficklin,
28:26
Speaker 1: by the way. Utah's Bird Ficklin is believed to be
28:28
Speaker 1: among the highest paid backups in the country. Sources familiar
28:31
Speaker 1: with the situation told ESPN. As Coach Morgan Scallon, the
28:34
Speaker 1: youths prioritized retaining both starter Devin Dampier and Ficklin entering 2026.
28:40
Speaker 1: A few major programs such as Alabama and Tennessee had
28:43
Speaker 1: to pay to keep two QBs going into off-season competitions.
28:47
Speaker 1: Others are heavily invested in blue-chip freshmen. The accelerated talent
28:51
Speaker 1: drain at the position certainly looms over all this decision-making.
28:55
Speaker 1: The death of the one-time transfer rule in 2024 inevitably
28:58
Speaker 1: led to more QBs making moves early in their careers.
29:02
Speaker 1: All of these guys have options, and most of them
29:07
Speaker 1: exercise that option. the vast majority of elite quote unquote
29:13
Speaker 1: backup talents are not content to remain backup talents and
29:18
Speaker 1: don't have to remain backup talents. Instead, they find somewhere
29:22
Speaker 1: else to go somewhere else to play something else to
29:25
Speaker 1: do and a paycheck and a system and a scheme
29:30
Speaker 1: and a team that needs them. I know we talk
29:34
Speaker 1: about it plenty, but bird Ficklin and Devin Dampier are
29:40
Speaker 1: one of the great stories right now in college football,
29:43
Speaker 1: their ability and willingness to coexist and Utah's ability and
29:49
Speaker 1: willingness to, to help them both be satisfied with the situation,
29:55
Speaker 1: Utah paying what it took to keep both of them.
29:58
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a big deal. Morgan Scali, understanding the
30:02
Speaker 1: priorities of what this could be. But then you broaden
30:07
Speaker 1: the look. You zoom out. You say, oh, it's so great.
30:11
Speaker 1: This is the best quarterback room in the country. But
30:14
Speaker 1: what about the wide receivers? Instead of having one guy
30:18
Speaker 1: or two guys that were like, I hope we can
30:20
Speaker 1: trust him, it feels like this Utah receiving core has
30:24
Speaker 1: given us four or five guys that we feel pretty
30:27
Speaker 1: darn good about. The running back situation, I think that
30:31
Speaker 1: Way Sean Parker is the best player, the best football
30:34
Speaker 1: player on this team. But if Way Sean Parker twists
30:38
Speaker 1: an ankle and goes down or is out for a
30:40
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, I'm not panicking because of what we've
30:44
Speaker 1: seen from Bray, what we've seen from Bam, what we've
30:49
Speaker 1: seen from Steven Chavez Soto, what we've seen from Bert Ficklin, right?
30:54
Speaker 1: Hunter Andrews even, not so much this year, but last
30:58
Speaker 1: year before he got hurt, gave you, gave you the
31:00
Speaker 1: thought like, okay, that's a guy you can give more
31:03
Speaker 1: carries to and probably be effective. So yeah, you're right.
31:06
Speaker 1: The depth that basically everywhere for Utah is incredible. And
31:12
Speaker 1: especially when you take a step back and go, they
31:16
Speaker 1: just lost their 21 year head coach. They just lost
31:19
Speaker 1: their offensive coordinator who, by the way, brought bird Ficklin
31:22
Speaker 1: in who, by the way, obviously Devin damp here, by
31:25
Speaker 1: the way, brought Daniel Bray. In to Utah market, they
31:31
Speaker 1: retain Mark Ottawaya. That's a big deal as a running
31:34
Speaker 1: backs coach. But man, like it's remarkable how much talent
31:39
Speaker 1: Utah was able to bring back and how much. how
31:42
Speaker 1: much depth they were able to get considering all the change.
31:46
Speaker 1: And just think of what it means that the power
31:48
Speaker 1: conference teams, the blue bloods are lamenting the lack of
31:53
Speaker 1: depth at crucial positions. And you get to look at
31:56
Speaker 1: Utah's roster and kind of quietly, because you don't want
32:00
Speaker 1: to pound too many chests about it and draw too
32:02
Speaker 1: much attention to it. Cause then those guys get big,
32:05
Speaker 1: big offers, but you like, Hey, you know what? I
32:07
Speaker 1: got four linebackers. I'd be happy with starting. You know,
32:11
Speaker 1: it's crazy. I thought that we had zero tight ends.
32:17
Speaker 1: I like three of them. You know what's really interesting?
32:21
Speaker 1: I didn't know what the safety room was going to
32:23
Speaker 1: look like because literally going into the fall, the depth
32:28
Speaker 1: chart was still unsettled. There's four guys I'd be happy
32:32
Speaker 1: with rolling out as a starter in these games, and
32:34
Speaker 1: it's even better because you get to play all of them. Oh,
32:37
Speaker 1: and all these weapons distributed across the field, It seems
32:41
Speaker 1: like nobody's really being a baby or a diva about
32:44
Speaker 1: the fact that they only get four or five touches
32:46
Speaker 1: a game at the wide receiver position as long as
32:49
Speaker 1: these wins are coming. I was wrong about a lot
32:57
Speaker 1: of my preseason expectations, but the, hey, I'm not sure
33:02
Speaker 1: if there's any depth to this team. This is the
33:08
Speaker 1: deepest Utah football team I can remember. 877-353-0700 if you
33:14
Speaker 1: want to weigh in. We'll take a break. We come
33:16
Speaker 1: back on a Ute Zone Wednesday. We'll talk to Sammy
33:19
Speaker 1: Mora from Ute Zone about, you guessed it, tonight's, excuse me,
33:24
Speaker 1: this weekend's game against Kansas. It's the Sean O'Connell Show,
33:28
Speaker 1: ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. You're tuned to.
33:34
Speaker 4: The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of
33:38
Speaker 4: ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
33:51
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN 700, 92.1 FM.
33:53
Speaker 1: We're joined now by Sammy Mora on a Ute Zone Wednesday.
34:01
Speaker 1: Utah football and, well, Utah all things insider, but it's
34:04
Speaker 1: football season. Sammy, welcome.
34:06
Speaker 4: How are you?
34:07
Speaker 5: I'm doing great, Sean. How are you?
34:10
Speaker 1: I'm doing all right. Glad to have you with us.
34:13
Speaker 1: We were just talking about the depth of this Utah
34:16
Speaker 1: football team inspired by an article in ESPN right now
34:20
Speaker 1: talking about how, you know, the talented QB number two
34:24
Speaker 1: is a thing of the past for a lot of
34:25
Speaker 1: programs because as soon as somebody is thought to be
34:30
Speaker 1: talented at the quarterback position, somebody wants them to be
34:33
Speaker 1: their starter. We've talked about it plenty, but Utah was
34:36
Speaker 1: able to retain both Devin Dampier and Bird Ficklin. They've
34:39
Speaker 1: used both Devin Dampier and Bird Ficklin in all four games.
34:42
Speaker 1: this season and it's really working out very nicely for
34:45
Speaker 1: the Utes. But then I zoomed out a little bit
34:47
Speaker 1: and I said, wow, there's actually a lot of depth
34:49
Speaker 1: at a lot of crucial positions for this Utah football team.
34:54
Speaker 1: And so I'm going to table the bird and the
34:56
Speaker 1: Devin thing for just a second here. What is the
34:59
Speaker 1: deepest position beyond that quarterback room for you?
35:03
Speaker 5: Safety. I think I want to say that the safety
35:06
Speaker 5: room is, is looking, is looking mighty deep, obviously, you know, Jackson, Benny, Nate, Richie,
35:12
Speaker 5: rabbit Evans, all three of them are playing and starting
35:15
Speaker 5: majority of the games this year. And, and, it's so
35:19
Speaker 5: deep that you have Benny playing mainly nickel just you
35:21
Speaker 5: can have all three of those guys out on the
35:23
Speaker 5: field at any given point but then if you look
35:25
Speaker 5: behind them we've heard a lot of good things about
35:28
Speaker 5: Nate Tillman he's played a lot this season we've heard
35:30
Speaker 5: a lot about Manny Fuller and what he can do
35:32
Speaker 5: as well so I think that safety is probably the
35:35
Speaker 5: first one that pops into my my brain but you
35:38
Speaker 5: could make an argument about wide receiver you could make
35:40
Speaker 5: an argument about running back you could Even make an
35:43
Speaker 5: argument about offensive line with the amount of guys that
35:46
Speaker 5: Utah's been playing this season. And same with linebacker. I
35:49
Speaker 5: think you have the four starters that have been playing. Well,
35:52
Speaker 5: not starters, but the four guys that have been rotating
35:54
Speaker 5: a lot this year. So I do agree. I think
35:56
Speaker 5: that there's a lot of positions across the board that
35:59
Speaker 5: are super deep for Utah this year.
36:02
Speaker 1: All right, if we now bring Devin and Bird back
36:05
Speaker 1: into it, it hasn't looked like a normal QB1, QB2 relationship.
36:10
Speaker 1: I don't think we anticipated that it would because even
36:13
Speaker 1: last year it didn't. Now that we've had a bye
36:16
Speaker 1: week to kind of digest the first four games. Is
36:20
Speaker 1: the balance where it should be right now? Is the
36:23
Speaker 1: balance correct? Do we need to see more bird throwing?
36:25
Speaker 1: Do we need to see less of them on the
36:28
Speaker 1: field at the same time running speed options and trickerations together?
36:32
Speaker 1: If you could revise or adjust, or maybe not, that
36:36
Speaker 1: 2QB room, is it being handled the right way?
36:41
Speaker 5: I think so. We've heard a lot from Kevin McGivin
36:44
Speaker 5: that this offense is built around making other teams pay
36:49
Speaker 5: for whatever Utah puts on the field. And if that
36:52
Speaker 5: means putting both on the field at the same time,
36:55
Speaker 5: I'm fine with it because it's winning games. Obviously I
36:58
Speaker 5: know that people like, you don't want to get too
37:00
Speaker 5: cute with it. And I think that's something that Morgan
37:01
Speaker 5: has talked a lot about. And that's something that Kevin
37:03
Speaker 5: has also talked about.
37:04
Speaker 2: You don't want to get cute.
37:05
Speaker 5: You want to be able to be efficient with what
37:07
Speaker 5: you're doing, but not make it so cute that defenses
37:11
Speaker 5: are figuring out what you're doing quickly. And for the
37:13
Speaker 5: most part, they haven't like, Yeah, there was those couple
37:16
Speaker 5: of drives that they stalled versus Iowa State, but they
37:18
Speaker 5: went away from what was working. And what was working
37:20
Speaker 5: in that moment was running the ball with Wayshon. And
37:22
Speaker 5: the second they went back to it, Wayshon scored, Utah
37:25
Speaker 5: steals the game. It's pretty simple that you do what's working.
37:30
Speaker 5: And if having both quarterbacks out on the field is working,
37:33
Speaker 5: then that's what Utah needs to do. I don't think...
37:37
Speaker 5: We need to see Bird throwing the ball more. I
37:39
Speaker 5: think that Devin has been an efficient passer through four games.
37:42
Speaker 5: I've liked what I've seen from him in terms of
37:44
Speaker 5: his development as a passer. He's going through his progressions
37:48
Speaker 5: a lot better. So for the most part, I'm fine
37:51
Speaker 5: with what he's doing. It was, you know, Bird played
37:53
Speaker 5: only seven snaps versus Iowa State, which was like his
37:55
Speaker 5: lowest snap count since I can't remember which game last season.
37:59
Speaker 5: But they're tailoring the offense to what the defense is
38:03
Speaker 5: giving them. So as of right now, no complaints from
38:05
Speaker 5: me on that area as well.
38:11
Speaker 1: What we saw from Iowa State last week against West Virginia, look,
38:15
Speaker 1: I don't think West Virginia is on Utah's level defensively,
38:19
Speaker 1: but Aiden Flora has now done to everyone except Utah
38:22
Speaker 1: something similar to that, where he's averaging eight-plus yards a
38:27
Speaker 1: carry against normal competition. Against Utah, he's lucky to get four.
38:32
Speaker 1: He's 212 yards of rushing and then a couple of
38:35
Speaker 1: touchdown passes. Now that we look at it all in hindsight,
38:39
Speaker 1: and of course two weeks of hindsight really clarifies things
38:42
Speaker 1: for you, should we be talking more about what Utah
38:46
Speaker 1: was able to do in containing one of the best
38:48
Speaker 1: players in the Big 12 Conference, at least through these
38:50
Speaker 1: first few weeks?
38:52
Speaker 5: I think so, because Flora, even before that, the week before, he...
38:58
Speaker 5: we played Iowa state played Utah. I think he also
39:01
Speaker 5: had like a big game and in multiple aspects, he
39:04
Speaker 5: was catching the ball. He was rushing the ball and
39:06
Speaker 5: he was being used in special teams action. And he
39:08
Speaker 5: just ran wild. So I do think that some credit
39:11
Speaker 5: needs to be put on this Utah defense, specifically the
39:14
Speaker 5: defensive line and the linebackers for being able to limit him.
39:18
Speaker 5: I know that the big concern heading into the season
39:21
Speaker 5: was run defense. And if Utah can limit someone who
39:23
Speaker 5: then rushes for 200 yards to what like I think
39:26
Speaker 5: it was like 50 or 60 is what he rushed
39:28
Speaker 5: for versus Utah I it's very encouraging and I think
39:31
Speaker 5: a lot like attention needs to be put on that
39:33
Speaker 5: and I think attention needs to be put on the
39:35
Speaker 5: run defense as a whole like they haven't given up
39:37
Speaker 5: more than 115 yards all season on the ground and
39:40
Speaker 5: they've had some some talented running backs and some talented
39:43
Speaker 5: mobile quarterbacks that have been lining up across from them.
39:47
Speaker 5: And so I'm encouraged by that area. I think that
39:51
Speaker 5: Flora is a very good running back. I think that
39:53
Speaker 5: he has the potential to be one of the top
39:56
Speaker 5: three backs in the conference this year. I think it's him,
40:00
Speaker 5: LJ Martin, and Wayshawn Parker are at least my top
40:03
Speaker 5: three right now. and so it's going to be interesting
40:06
Speaker 5: to see how teams continue to scheme against him or
40:08
Speaker 5: if they are able to stop him because Utah gave
40:11
Speaker 5: a good blueprint on what you should do. It's just
40:13
Speaker 5: a matter of if teams are able to follow it,
40:15
Speaker 5: and I agree. West Virginia is not at the level
40:19
Speaker 5: of Utah in terms of run defense. I think their D.C.
40:21
Speaker 5: made a comment about that either yesterday or today, and
40:24
Speaker 5: it's kind of making its rounds, but yeah, credit needs
40:28
Speaker 5: to be given to that defensive line, especially Jai and Carson.
40:31
Speaker 5: The two of them were just playing at an insanely
40:34
Speaker 5: high level versus.
40:34
Speaker 1: Iowa State, and it showed. Sammy Moore is our guest
40:38
Speaker 1: here on a Ute Zone Wednesday, talking all things Utah football.
40:41
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40:59
Speaker 1: All right, what is the most troubling or alarming thing
41:03
Speaker 1: about the Kansas matchup on Saturday night?
41:09
Speaker 5: I honestly, like, the thing is, I think these two
41:12
Speaker 5: teams stack up pretty, like, statistically, if you're looking through
41:16
Speaker 5: the stats, like, they stack up well. I am interested
41:18
Speaker 5: to see how Utah handles Iowa's run defense. They have
41:23
Speaker 5: been pretty stout up front throughout the most part of
41:26
Speaker 5: the season. first four games of the season. But also
41:31
Speaker 5: there was concerns about Utah's running game heading into Iowa
41:34
Speaker 5: State because Iowa State also had a strong run defense.
41:37
Speaker 5: And I think getting Keith Olsen back out there was
41:39
Speaker 5: a big part of the success we saw. You saw
41:41
Speaker 5: Kelvin Obot see some added time and started even versus
41:46
Speaker 5: Iowa State. So I'm excited to see how this run
41:49
Speaker 5: offense attacks the Kansas run defense. I think that this
41:53
Speaker 5: team is invigorated. I think they're excited to be back
41:55
Speaker 5: out there, especially after the bi-week and stuff. So I
41:58
Speaker 5: think that's my biggest thing right now. I don't, there's
42:01
Speaker 5: nothing that's like, Oh my gosh, like how is Utah
42:03
Speaker 5: going to stop this? Or how is Utah going to
42:06
Speaker 5: attack this? That's really like lingering in my brain throughout.
42:10
Speaker 5: Cause I went back and watched Kansas starting last week.
42:13
Speaker 5: I mean, I watched that Kansas Missouri game earlier in
42:15
Speaker 5: the season and I there was game plans. Like I,
42:19
Speaker 5: Missouri was able to throw the ball effectively on Kansas,
42:21
Speaker 5: but then Kansas was able to shut down Arizona state.
42:23
Speaker 5: So it's just one of those things where it's like,
42:25
Speaker 5: what Kansas are you going to get? But run, run
42:28
Speaker 5: ground game for Utah's offense is a big thing. I'm
42:31
Speaker 5: excited to see.
42:33
Speaker 1: So it's been a couple of weeks. Way Sean Parker
42:38
Speaker 1: is an absolute monster. The 20 something touches is, Feels
42:44
Speaker 1: a lot better for me than what we saw against
42:45
Speaker 1: Utah State. But when you do that, you take away
42:49
Speaker 1: opportunities from his backups. You take away opportunities from other
42:52
Speaker 1: guys in this offense. And it's a wonderful problem to have.
42:57
Speaker 1: The correct number of touches for Way Sean Parker in
43:00
Speaker 1: a Kansas game and maybe moving forward is how many
43:03
Speaker 1: for you?
43:06
Speaker 5: It's hard because I can see them leaning into Way
43:09
Speaker 5: Sean a lot more if the team that they're playing
43:12
Speaker 5: against has... bad run defense. But then if you're going
43:15
Speaker 5: up against a team that has a weak secondary, I
43:18
Speaker 5: can totally see way Sean's touches going down because they're
43:20
Speaker 5: going to try and throw the ball. Like McGiven has
43:22
Speaker 5: said that this offense is a pick your poison and it's,
43:25
Speaker 5: it's really looking like that through four, four games. So
43:27
Speaker 5: I don't really know if there is a significant, like
43:30
Speaker 5: what the solid number should be in terms of carries
43:33
Speaker 5: for way Sean or touches for way Sean, but it's,
43:36
Speaker 5: if the team is giving you like, Oh, we're going
43:38
Speaker 5: to sell out for the passing game.
43:39
Speaker 4: Yeah.
43:39
Speaker 5: You're going to, you're going to keep running it with
43:41
Speaker 5: way Sean until they can show you that you're going
43:42
Speaker 5: to stop it. So I don't really know. Like, I
43:45
Speaker 5: feel like that's like a cop out answer for me,
43:47
Speaker 5: but it feels like this offense, like Morgan said, every
43:49
Speaker 5: single week, somebody knew has stepped up to the plate
43:51
Speaker 5: and done something. And that's making it hard for defenses
43:54
Speaker 5: to key in on Utah. And so if, if it
43:57
Speaker 5: means way Sean getting less touches, like it was versus
43:59
Speaker 5: Utah state, but Braden pagan's eating in the passing game, um,
44:03
Speaker 5: I personally don't have any issues with it, especially if
44:05
Speaker 5: Utah's coming away with the win.
44:08
Speaker 1: Coming out of the bye, you've got to have good
44:10
Speaker 1: practices during a bye week. Yes, it's nice to get
44:13
Speaker 1: a little bit of rest, but you had good momentum
44:16
Speaker 1: going in, so you don't want to lose any of
44:17
Speaker 1: that if momentum from game to game is even a
44:20
Speaker 1: real thing. Some people believe it's not. When you look
44:23
Speaker 1: at what this team needed to tweak, needed to fix
44:26
Speaker 1: heading into the bye week, and we're working on during
44:29
Speaker 1: the bye week, I put you in charge of And
44:31
Speaker 1: there's something that you get to fix or improve or
44:34
Speaker 1: alter coming out of the bye week. What is that thing?
44:38
Speaker 5: I think offensively, it's just the boneheaded penalties that kind
44:43
Speaker 5: of limited things earlier in the first few games. Like
44:46
Speaker 5: you have Weishan's long touchdown run that's taken back because
44:50
Speaker 5: it's illegal man downfield on Alex Harrison. You have, I
44:54
Speaker 5: can't remember, I think it was Steve Chavez's Soto's touchdown
44:57
Speaker 5: versus Idaho's taken back because Wilmani's called for a holding.
45:00
Speaker 5: There's some of those things. Those penalties that shouldn't be called,
45:05
Speaker 5: or not they should be called, but some things that
45:07
Speaker 5: Utah could clean up in that area that would lead
45:10
Speaker 5: to additional points that are being scored that were taken
45:12
Speaker 5: off the board. So I think that's offensively the biggest
45:15
Speaker 5: thing for me. Defensively, it's getting those defensive ends to
45:20
Speaker 5: actually finish because Lance has been in the backfield quite
45:24
Speaker 5: a bit this season, and he hasn't been able to
45:26
Speaker 5: come away with a sack. So it's finishing those plays
45:28
Speaker 5: for those defensive ends defensively getting those sacks because Utah
45:31
Speaker 5: already has 11 sacks on the season. I know people
45:34
Speaker 5: will think that this team doesn't have a lot of
45:35
Speaker 5: sacks already, but they have 11. I was looking at
45:37
Speaker 5: the number this morning and majority of those sacks are
45:40
Speaker 5: coming from the linebackers and then the defensive tackles have
45:43
Speaker 5: the second most. So if you can get those defensive ends,
45:46
Speaker 5: getting those sacks, it just makes this defense even stronger
45:49
Speaker 5: because if, If Lance is crashing down, they're running, and
45:53
Speaker 5: Ethan Day's right there to finish it up. That leads
45:56
Speaker 5: to another sack, and that helps this defense put these
45:59
Speaker 5: offenses into some passing situations, which let those two pin
46:02
Speaker 5: their ears back and go at it. And maybe Jackson
46:06
Speaker 5: Benny comes up with another interception, or Scooby, or Eli Reed,
46:09
Speaker 5: or whoever's back there in the secondary. So I think
46:11
Speaker 5: those are the two big things. I think there hasn't
46:14
Speaker 5: been anything truly.
46:17
Speaker 5: Glaring about glaring weaknesses, in my opinion, on, on this
46:21
Speaker 5: team this year, I think that everything has run kind
46:23
Speaker 5: of smoothly. We kind of have a better idea of
46:26
Speaker 5: who this team is that I did maybe three, like
46:29
Speaker 5: right before the season started, but you know, there's still
46:32
Speaker 5: a lot of football left to be played.
46:33
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the big 12 at large. Um, I,
46:40
Speaker 1: every single week or every chance we get to talk
46:42
Speaker 1: to you, the expectations have to be shifted. Utah's been consistent.
46:48
Speaker 1: Utah's 4-0. Texas Tech is still undefeated, but has shown
46:53
Speaker 1: maybe some vulnerabilities in certain places. BYU's dealing with some
46:57
Speaker 1: injuries now that are very significant. I mean, two of
47:00
Speaker 1: your best five players are out this weekend against Iowa State.
47:05
Speaker 1: Oklahoma State in the rankings. Houston in the rankings. And
47:07
Speaker 1: that's a game that's coming up for the Utes. When
47:10
Speaker 1: you look at the top three, four teams in this
47:13
Speaker 1: Big 12 conference, how do you handicap them?
47:17
Speaker 5: It's so hard because like you said, I think Texas
47:22
Speaker 5: Tech has showed some deficiencies. We saw it versus Colorado.
47:25
Speaker 5: We saw it versus Houston. I think that I'm very
47:31
Speaker 5: interested to see how BYU looks versus Iowa State on Friday,
47:35
Speaker 5: especially like we talked about with Aiden Flora. Isaiah Glaster
47:39
Speaker 5: is a big part of their run defense, and with
47:41
Speaker 5: him out, I don't know how this defense is going
47:43
Speaker 5: to handle Flora. Because if Flora is able to run wild,
47:48
Speaker 5: I don't know if BYU's offense has what it takes
47:50
Speaker 5: to respond, especially because we saw what this offense looked
47:54
Speaker 5: like without L.J.
47:54
Speaker 2: Martin last week.
47:55
Speaker 5: And I know people are probably screaming at their radios, well,
47:58
Speaker 5: the weather, the weather. I get that. I get the weather,
48:01
Speaker 5: but you were only effective with bear running the ball.
48:04
Speaker 5: Like that was the only reason. And bear even then
48:06
Speaker 5: only had like what, 66 yards of rushing. So I,
48:10
Speaker 5: I am very interested to see how BYU reacts to
48:13
Speaker 5: those two key pieces being out this weekend versus Iowa state. Um,
48:17
Speaker 5: I Houston, I'm still confused about, I have, they look,
48:21
Speaker 5: they have games where they look really good. And then
48:23
Speaker 5: you have to have a come from behind victory to
48:26
Speaker 5: beat UCF. You had it in the bag versus Texas
48:30
Speaker 5: tech for most of the game until that, that last
48:32
Speaker 5: call at the end of the game. So I don't really,
48:34
Speaker 5: it's so weird. This conference feels really open this year,
48:38
Speaker 5: but at the same time, I feel like the first
48:40
Speaker 5: team that makes a mistake out of those top four
48:43
Speaker 5: of Utah is a TC or Texas tech, BYU and Houston,
48:48
Speaker 5: the first one to make another mistake or a big
48:50
Speaker 5: mistake for the top three, I think is going to
48:52
Speaker 5: be on the outside looking in. I think the margin
48:54
Speaker 5: for error is so small in this conference this year
48:56
Speaker 5: that it's just, just be clean. And if you can
48:59
Speaker 5: stay clean, you're probably going to be in a good
49:01
Speaker 5: position heading into November and December.
49:03
Speaker 3: Speaker 3 If.
49:03
Speaker 1: We end up with like a Baylor, Arizona conference championship game,
49:07
Speaker 1: I'm going to be real mad.
49:10
Speaker 5: It's going to be, that's the other thing is like,
49:12
Speaker 5: I don't know what to think about Baylor. I don't
49:14
Speaker 5: know what to think about Arizona. I don't know what
49:16
Speaker 5: to think about Cincinnati. It's just, this conference feels so.
49:20
Speaker 5: funky this year that it's not even funny. Like, like
49:23
Speaker 5: last year it was very clear cut that it was
49:25
Speaker 5: Texas tech conference to lose. And then BYU and Utah
49:28
Speaker 5: were kind of fighting for that second spot. But like
49:30
Speaker 5: this year, it's like, I don't know what is going
49:32
Speaker 5: to happen. And on one hand that makes it, it's fun.
49:35
Speaker 5: Every game means a little bit more than it did
49:38
Speaker 5: before the season. But at the same time, it's like,
49:40
Speaker 5: kind of annoying because it's like something funky is probably
49:43
Speaker 5: going to happen, which, which I don't like. I, it's
49:46
Speaker 5: just weird. It's a weird conference OC.
49:49
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I don't think Utah ever gets to be
49:52
Speaker 1: part of a normal conference. That's just the way things are.
49:55
Speaker 5: Oh yeah. The PAC 12 days. That was also weird
49:58
Speaker 5: with the amount of tiebreakers that Utah needed to get
50:01
Speaker 5: into title games. And then, yeah, it was just a mess.
50:04
Speaker 1: Just flip coins at the beginning of the season and
50:07
Speaker 1: figure it out that way.
50:09
Speaker 5: That is still one of the weirdest tiebreakers, in my opinion,
50:11
Speaker 5: is that they're going to flip a coin and have
50:13
Speaker 5: predetermined who's head and who's tails. Because the way this
50:16
Speaker 5: conference rolls, somehow they're going to flip the coin and
50:19
Speaker 5: it's going to land in a crack on the sidewalk
50:21
Speaker 5: and it's going to stay upright. And then they're going
50:24
Speaker 5: to be like, well, I guess we're going to have
50:26
Speaker 5: to move down to tiebreaker Z or something. It just
50:29
Speaker 5: feels weird. It's I wish there was divisions because it
50:33
Speaker 5: would make things so much easier, so much easier when
50:36
Speaker 5: it comes to, to conference game standings and stuff like that.
50:40
Speaker 1: Well, um, your thoughts on the icy white helmets.
50:45
Speaker 5: I love them. Um, I fun fact, this is like
50:48
Speaker 5: a fun story. I was actually talking to, uh, John Leone.
50:51
Speaker 5: He's one of our staff writers over at Utona and he's,
50:54
Speaker 5: Student editor at the Daily Utah Chronicle as well. I
50:57
Speaker 5: was literally talking to him at the Utah State game,
51:00
Speaker 5: not knowing that these hand-painted helmets were like, this was
51:03
Speaker 5: like what the idea was for the hand-painted helmets. I said,
51:06
Speaker 5: it would be really cool if Utah did a script
51:07
Speaker 5: Utah helmet. Because I thought it would be, I think
51:10
Speaker 5: that's like the one logo that remains untapped. for this
51:14
Speaker 5: Utah football program. And so I didn't even know that
51:16
Speaker 5: this was where they were at. I, for hand painted helmets.
51:19
Speaker 5: And then I had heard like literally like right after
51:21
Speaker 5: the Iowa state game, that this is what it was
51:23
Speaker 5: going to be. And I was like, did I manifest this?
51:26
Speaker 5: Am I the reason that this is happening? I know
51:28
Speaker 5: I'm not, but like, it was like one of those
51:30
Speaker 5: things that was like a weird coincidence.
51:31
Speaker 1: I love them. Hey, maybe, yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe we
51:35
Speaker 1: should be thanking you for these cool helmets.
51:38
Speaker 5: Hey, you know, if you need something manifested, I'm your gal.
51:41
Speaker 5: Let's just say it that way. Let's just put it
51:42
Speaker 5: that way. I like them. I'm a big fan of them.
51:46
Speaker 5: I think that hoodie that they announced this morning with Bird,
51:49
Speaker 5: and it's like the ice drip, the icicles dripping off
51:52
Speaker 5: the script detail. I love it. I'm a big fan
51:55
Speaker 5: of the hand-painted helmets, have always been, will always be
51:58
Speaker 5: a fan of them, but I love it. It's like
52:01
Speaker 5: the last logo that remains untouched for football, so I'm excited.
52:05
Speaker 1: Wait, where's the hoodie? I haven't seen it.
52:07
Speaker 5: Utah football posted it on Twitter this morning. See, where
52:10
Speaker 5: have you been? It's almost like you've been on the radio.
52:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry. I'm not always on Twitter. Oh, sick. Yep.
52:19
Speaker 4: All right.
52:20
Speaker 1: Whiteout merch. Whiteout merch.
52:26
Speaker 5: It's nice. It's really nice.
52:28
Speaker 1: Final prediction for the game on Saturday night.
52:32
Speaker 5: Utah wins, Utah covers. I don't really know what my
52:36
Speaker 5: score prediction should be, especially now that there's rain in
52:39
Speaker 5: the forecast, there's wind in the forecast. But I do
52:42
Speaker 5: think Utah wins. I do think Utah covers that 15
52:45
Speaker 5: and a half. Maybe it's running touchdowns. Maybe there's a
52:50
Speaker 5: break where the wind's not a factor and Utah's able
52:52
Speaker 5: to air it out. But I do think Utah's going
52:53
Speaker 5: to win this game.
52:56
Speaker 1: Sammy, you're the best. See you up there. Thank you.
52:58
Speaker 5: Thanks, OC. Talk to you later.
53:01
Speaker 1: The Utah iced out sweatshirt available at the Utah campus store.
53:06
Speaker 5: Woo.
53:08
Speaker 1: I need to know. I think this is screen printed.
53:10
Speaker 1: I want to, I would prefer if it was a,
53:13
Speaker 1: so on or a stick on type thing, but we'll
53:16
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54:53
Speaker 1: we're going to double up here. We'll come back with
54:54
Speaker 1: the voice of the Kansas Jayhawks. What should we expect
54:57
Speaker 1: on Saturday night at the Whiteout? What is Kansas actually
55:00
Speaker 1: going to bring to Rice Echo Stadium? Brian Haney is
55:03
Speaker 1: going to tell us in three minutes on ESPN 700
55:06
Speaker 1: and 92.1 FM.
55:12
Speaker 4: This is the Sean O'Connell Show, your home of the
55:15
Speaker 4: best inside of your Utes. Let's get back to OC
55:18
Speaker 4: from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN 792.1 FM.
55:27
Speaker 1: What is Utah actually going to see on Saturday night
55:31
Speaker 1: against the Kansas Jayhawks? Like many teams in the conference
55:36
Speaker 1: right now, including for some your Utes, Kansas, a little
55:41
Speaker 1: bit difficult to figure out. They're 2-2, 0-1 so far
55:46
Speaker 1: in conference play. Victories have come from Long Island in
55:52
Speaker 1: the first game of the season and Middle Tennessee in
55:55
Speaker 1: their last game. That was a 55-0 demolition by the Jayhawks.
56:01
Speaker 1: Tough game in the Board of War against Missouri, and they...
56:05
Speaker 1: Got outlasted by Arizona State in their only conference game
56:08
Speaker 1: so far. Now they're coming to Rice-Eckel Stadium for a
56:11
Speaker 1: night game with a whiteout, which is a combination we
56:15
Speaker 1: have not yet seen. And when you're looking for people
56:19
Speaker 1: that know a thing or two about Kansas Jayhawks athletics,
56:24
Speaker 1: the first name you think of is our next guest.
56:26
Speaker 1: Brian Haney, the voice of the Jayhawks, is kind enough
56:28
Speaker 1: to join us here on the Sean O'Connell Show. Brian, welcome.
56:31
Speaker 1: How are you, sir?
56:32
Speaker 3: Great to be on, Sean. Appreciate you having me. Fired
56:35
Speaker 3: up to come out there on Saturday night. Obviously excited
56:38
Speaker 3: about the game, but as somebody that just loves seeing
56:40
Speaker 3: new venues, I think this is the last of the
56:44
Speaker 3: stops for us to cross off the list of the
56:47
Speaker 3: latest wave of new Big 12 league members that we
56:50
Speaker 3: haven't been out to see in football. So looking forward
56:52
Speaker 3: to it. What am I getting myself into? This is
56:54
Speaker 3: going to be a pretty raucous crowd, it sounds like.
56:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, night games at Rice Eccles are typically a little
56:59
Speaker 1: bit rowdy. Now the weather might... Diminish that a little bit.
57:03
Speaker 1: We're not a hundred percent sure of course, but it
57:05
Speaker 1: sounds like there might be some wind and some wet
57:08
Speaker 1: that could take a little sting off the must, but
57:11
Speaker 1: you never know because this is a group of students
57:14
Speaker 1: and fans that are very excited about what Utah looks
57:17
Speaker 1: like right now. What is the Kansas Jayhawk perspective on
57:21
Speaker 1: this game against an undefeated 13th ranked Utah team?
57:25
Speaker 3: I think we know what we're up against. Easily the
57:29
Speaker 3: biggest challenge we've had to date. Missouri certainly deserves to
57:34
Speaker 3: be in that conversation. We played them at home, though,
57:37
Speaker 3: so this is a different kind of beast going out
57:39
Speaker 3: there on the road. Our guys will draw confidence, even
57:43
Speaker 3: though it was different personnel, certainly at many spots, but
57:46
Speaker 3: some carryover, too, from how competitive last year's game was
57:51
Speaker 3: in Lawrence. I didn't think that that was necessarily truly
57:54
Speaker 3: indicative of all that Utah was capable of, and yet
57:58
Speaker 3: they still found a way, even on... you know, a
58:00
Speaker 3: somewhat down day by their standards to pull out a
58:03
Speaker 3: road win on KU senior day. But I think there's
58:06
Speaker 3: some returning Jayhawks that will try to draw from that
58:08
Speaker 3: experience and having a little bit of an idea of
58:10
Speaker 3: what to expect. But for us, we're breaking in a
58:14
Speaker 3: new quarterback that now is four starts deep in his tenure.
58:18
Speaker 3: And you hope he takes that next step in what
58:20
Speaker 3: will be far and away the most hostile environment he's
58:24
Speaker 3: ever played in. We've technically not had a road game
58:28
Speaker 3: yet because the trip to London and Wembley stadium was
58:31
Speaker 3: a home game on paper for us, a neutral site
58:34
Speaker 3: in actuality. So this is a whole new ball of
58:37
Speaker 3: wax to walk into a venue like this for a
58:39
Speaker 3: young quarterback. And they've done a lot this week to
58:42
Speaker 3: try to simulate the type of crowd noise that he'll
58:45
Speaker 3: be up against and his ability to still have command
58:47
Speaker 3: in the huddle and, and, communicate and articulate the play
58:50
Speaker 3: calls and all that. So Isaiah Marshall is the young
58:53
Speaker 3: man I'm talking about. We saw some nice strides out
58:56
Speaker 3: of him a week ago after a little bit of
58:58
Speaker 3: a slow start, first three games. But he is very
59:02
Speaker 3: similar to what you saw last year in Jalen Daniels
59:05
Speaker 3: in terms of a true dual-threat quarterback, maybe more explosive
59:10
Speaker 3: when he does get outside the pocket and gets those
59:13
Speaker 3: wheels rolling, but not yet the full potential package deal
59:18
Speaker 3: that Jalen Daniels was by the end of his senior
59:21
Speaker 3: year here, a guy that's now starting tomorrow night for
59:24
Speaker 3: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the NFL. So I think
59:27
Speaker 3: that's the big question for me as the play-by-play announcer.
59:30
Speaker 3: How does the young quarterback handle this environment? We're also
59:34
Speaker 3: just four games deep into Andy Kotelnicki returning as offensive
59:38
Speaker 3: play caller. He, as you'll recall, perhaps was the OC
59:41
Speaker 3: for Lance Leipold in in coach's first few seasons when
59:45
Speaker 3: we were going to back-to-back bowl games and the program
59:47
Speaker 3: was really starting to take off. Then in years four
59:50
Speaker 3: and five in the Leipold era, Kodelnicki was at Penn State.
59:54
Speaker 3: And so he's back. The offense is starting to take
59:57
Speaker 3: shape like we think it could look, but it hasn't
1:00:00
Speaker 3: quite hit on all cylinders until last week, and that
1:00:03
Speaker 3: was obviously a Middle Tennessee team that's a far cry
1:00:06
Speaker 3: from the Utes. But certainly those were nice sides. They
1:00:09
Speaker 3: set a school record in yardage, in the history of
1:00:12
Speaker 3: KU football last Saturday. So hopefully they can build off
1:00:15
Speaker 3: of that. But those are my, my main concerns and
1:00:18
Speaker 3: things to look for the defense for Kansas has played
1:00:21
Speaker 3: as well as they've played in six seasons of Lance
1:00:24
Speaker 3: Leipold here. And we can get into that more if
1:00:26
Speaker 3: you like, but the defense has been the strong suit
1:00:29
Speaker 3: throughout this first month. And they hope to build on
1:00:31
Speaker 3: that Saturday.
1:00:32
Speaker 1: I definitely want to talk about the defense, but I
1:00:34
Speaker 1: have a couple of more offensive questions here. And of course, right.
1:00:39
Speaker 1: a lot of times what your quarterback does is the
1:00:41
Speaker 1: determining factor for whether you win or lose football games.
1:00:45
Speaker 1: When you got a young guy, even a talented young
1:00:47
Speaker 1: guy like Isaiah Marshall appears to be, there's some growing
1:00:50
Speaker 1: pains here. And right now that manifests itself with some inconsistency.
1:00:55
Speaker 1: He's not completing a high percentage of his passes right now.
1:00:58
Speaker 1: I certainly haven't watched anywhere near the amount of Kansas
1:01:01
Speaker 1: football this year or ever that you have. When you
1:01:04
Speaker 1: look at, you know, where that consistency comes from, is it,
1:01:09
Speaker 1: A target selection problem for him? Is he being pressured
1:01:12
Speaker 1: more than he's comfortable with right now as a young player?
1:01:16
Speaker 1: Are the routes wrong? Are his receivers not up to snuff?
1:01:19
Speaker 1: What is causing some of that for the Utah fan
1:01:22
Speaker 1: to look for?
1:01:24
Speaker 3: All good questions. There's probably five different answers. I'll try
1:01:27
Speaker 3: to give them concisely. But, you know, week one, you're
1:01:30
Speaker 3: playing Long Island. Everything comes easy. It's a small college
1:01:35
Speaker 3: coming in here and you boat race them. And, you know,
1:01:38
Speaker 3: it wasn't the type of real SEC caliber speed that
1:01:42
Speaker 3: he would face the next week and the strength of
1:01:44
Speaker 3: the explosive athletes and all that. Week two versus Mizzou,
1:01:48
Speaker 3: I thought he was running for his life the entire
1:01:50
Speaker 3: second half. There were some protection issues that had him
1:01:54
Speaker 3: constantly on the go. If you go back and search
1:01:56
Speaker 3: for it on social media, you'll see a play where
1:01:59
Speaker 3: he's falling out of bounds and just spins and chucks
1:02:02
Speaker 3: the ball straight upward in the air. He actually completed
1:02:05
Speaker 3: it to his tight end, and they gained yardage, but
1:02:07
Speaker 3: it's the type of play that whether you're playing Pee Wee,
1:02:09
Speaker 3: Pop Warner, or playing on Sundays, it's definitely ill-advised, but
1:02:14
Speaker 3: that was a microcosm indicative of just how much he
1:02:18
Speaker 3: was getting beat up in that game, how much constantly
1:02:21
Speaker 3: he felt under duress. And so that was a tough one,
1:02:24
Speaker 3: I think, for the entire offensive unit, starting with pass protection,
1:02:28
Speaker 3: but everybody. And nobody was without some blame in that one.
1:02:32
Speaker 3: They just kind of got outmatched against a team that
1:02:35
Speaker 3: clearly is further down the line than Kansas. Week three
1:02:40
Speaker 3: at Arizona State, I don't think he was fully healthy,
1:02:43
Speaker 3: and he was without his number one receiver, Cam Pickett,
1:02:46
Speaker 3: and his number one tight end, Carson Bruin. He fought
1:02:49
Speaker 3: through some... bumps and bruises from the week before, and
1:02:53
Speaker 3: showed great perseverance, I felt, in a game where they
1:02:57
Speaker 3: were really slow out the gates, couldn't get anything going offensively.
1:03:00
Speaker 3: They're down 17 halfway through the fourth quarter, and he
1:03:03
Speaker 3: leads them on back-to-back scoring drives to pull them within
1:03:06
Speaker 3: seven and darn near complete the comeback. So I saw
1:03:10
Speaker 3: something from him that night in terms of stick-to-itiveness and
1:03:13
Speaker 3: mental toughness. And a guy that was operating a little
1:03:17
Speaker 3: bit hurt and not with a full deck of cards
1:03:19
Speaker 3: in terms of his weapons did everything he could. Last week, again,
1:03:23
Speaker 3: it's Middle Tennessee. Still an FBS opponent. It's Conference USA.
1:03:27
Speaker 1: But, man, he looked good.
1:03:28
Speaker 3: He looked fresh. He got both the tight end and
1:03:31
Speaker 3: receiver back that were gone the previous week. And it
1:03:33
Speaker 3: started to kind of come together. Now, what this Kansas
1:03:36
Speaker 3: team has lost offensively a couple of weeks back now
1:03:40
Speaker 3: in that Arizona State game that they will not be
1:03:41
Speaker 3: getting back is the Yassin Willis running back talent transfer
1:03:47
Speaker 3: from Syracuse that was a preseason Doak Walker Award nominee.
1:03:50
Speaker 3: You still have Dylan Edwards, who's the lightning in that
1:03:54
Speaker 3: thunder and lightning combo. But there's no more thunder. Willis
1:03:57
Speaker 3: is likely done for the year. He will not be
1:03:59
Speaker 3: there on Saturday night. That puts more pressure on the quarterback.
1:04:02
Speaker 3: But I think there's more things they can do in
1:04:04
Speaker 3: the QB run game. It really starts with him making
1:04:06
Speaker 3: better decisions on when to keep and when to give
1:04:09
Speaker 3: in some of the zone reads and QB option that
1:04:11
Speaker 3: they'll run. But I saw a guy that, to me
1:04:14
Speaker 3: last week, it looked like the game was slowing down
1:04:16
Speaker 3: a little bit for him. He was more like himself
1:04:19
Speaker 3: physically and in terms of no restrictions health-wise than That's
1:04:23
Speaker 3: the guy I hope we see on Saturday night. But again,
1:04:26
Speaker 3: he's not been in an environment like this, and that'll
1:04:29
Speaker 3: be as big a question mark as any.
1:04:31
Speaker 1: Let's switch to the defense. By the way, Brian Haney
1:04:33
Speaker 1: is our guest, the voice of the Kansas Jayhawks, who's
1:04:36
Speaker 1: coming to Salt Lake City to call the game on
1:04:38
Speaker 1: Saturday night. Look, if we go strength versus strength and
1:04:42
Speaker 1: weakness versus weakness with these teams, right now it's hard
1:04:46
Speaker 1: to pass the ball against this Kansas Jayhawks squad, at
1:04:48
Speaker 1: least in the sample size we've been able to see.
1:04:52
Speaker 1: They're not I wouldn't say vulnerable against the run, but
1:04:55
Speaker 1: you can have a little bit more success there. And
1:04:57
Speaker 1: we might get a short game with both teams running
1:05:00
Speaker 1: the ball a ton. Tell me about how Kansas has
1:05:03
Speaker 1: been so potent against the pass.
1:05:06
Speaker 3: Well, I think it starts with the pressure up front.
1:05:09
Speaker 3: It's clearly a strength and a strong suit of KU
1:05:13
Speaker 3: when you look at their two rush ends, starting with
1:05:15
Speaker 3: Leroy Harris, who's probably our best pro prospect ever. since
1:05:20
Speaker 3: Aqib Tlaib in 2008. That goes back a ways. I
1:05:23
Speaker 3: know you guys just put two linemen in the first
1:05:25
Speaker 3: round of the draft last year, but we haven't had
1:05:26
Speaker 3: a first round pick in 18 years now. I think
1:05:30
Speaker 3: Leroy Harris has the pedigree to potentially be that. If not,
1:05:34
Speaker 3: he's a second round pick. That is a high day
1:05:37
Speaker 3: to selection. He has been so impactful and whether he
1:05:40
Speaker 3: gets all the way to the quarterback for a sack
1:05:43
Speaker 3: or he's making a play at the end of the play,
1:05:45
Speaker 3: ripping the ball out with three consecutive games, forcing a fumble.
1:05:49
Speaker 3: He has been tremendous. His dad played six years in
1:05:51
Speaker 3: the pros with a couple of different franchises. When he
1:05:54
Speaker 3: came to Kansas two years ago, really just phenomenal. 15
1:05:58
Speaker 3: months ago, to be honest. He was a UT Chattanooga
1:06:03
Speaker 3: transfer portal addition that had yet had the benefit of
1:06:07
Speaker 3: a Power 4 conference training table and strength and conditioning
1:06:11
Speaker 3: program and all that. He's put on 30 pounds of
1:06:14
Speaker 3: great weight. he had the frame to build into this
1:06:17
Speaker 3: body of his with that NFL pedigree that his dad
1:06:20
Speaker 3: gave him. And to me, I mean, he looks like
1:06:23
Speaker 3: his final prospect as we've had on the other side,
1:06:26
Speaker 3: David Santiago, who's a transfer from Michigan state and air
1:06:29
Speaker 3: force before that. He's been a really potent pass rusher, too.
1:06:32
Speaker 3: Really excited about him. And that one-two punch they bring
1:06:36
Speaker 3: there has been getting to the quarterback, making time in
1:06:38
Speaker 3: the pocket, time to make reads and get the ball
1:06:41
Speaker 3: out much faster than it's been in recent seasons. Blake
1:06:44
Speaker 3: Harrell's a great guy. In the middle of that D-line,
1:06:46
Speaker 3: he's the captain. And then in the middle of the
1:06:47
Speaker 3: defense as a whole, Trey Latham, our leading tackler from
1:06:51
Speaker 3: a year ago, he's back. He's not the pro prospect
1:06:54
Speaker 3: that Leroy Harris is, but we call his name as
1:06:56
Speaker 3: much as any, and he's a great carryover player from
1:07:00
Speaker 3: last year that Utah fans will remember. So those are
1:07:03
Speaker 3: where I think the defensive keys start, but in the
1:07:06
Speaker 3: back end of the defense, a young man by the
1:07:08
Speaker 3: name of Jalen Todd, four-star prospect from Detroit, same high
1:07:12
Speaker 3: school actually as our quarterback, Isaiah Marshall, He is our
1:07:15
Speaker 3: best upper corner. He has a chance one day to
1:07:18
Speaker 3: play for pay on Sundays in the NFL, too. And
1:07:21
Speaker 3: so it's a total recipe of some frontline talent that's
1:07:24
Speaker 3: maybe a little bit better than we've typically had at
1:07:27
Speaker 3: Kansas and a defensive coordinator in D.K. McDonald. who's now
1:07:32
Speaker 3: in his second full season as the primary DC, he's
1:07:35
Speaker 3: really putting his stamp on things and, and their scheme
1:07:38
Speaker 3: and their execution has been very impressive. Missouri found some
1:07:41
Speaker 3: soft spots in the defense with their exceptional personnel that
1:07:45
Speaker 3: was able to get open downfield, second and third level.
1:07:49
Speaker 3: Other schools have struggled to get that, including Arizona State.
1:07:52
Speaker 3: So it'll be interesting on Saturday night.
1:07:54
Speaker 1: The punt return game, already seen one taken to the
1:07:56
Speaker 1: house for your Jayhawks and a second right now in
1:08:00
Speaker 1: the conference, an average punt return. And obviously when your
1:08:02
Speaker 1: defense is playing well and you're forcing somebody to punt,
1:08:05
Speaker 1: that's a chance for an explosive play, momentum grabber, you know,
1:08:09
Speaker 1: a game changer potentially. What has been the biggest contributor
1:08:13
Speaker 1: to their success on that particular special team?
1:08:16
Speaker 3: Well, there's a couple of guys to look at there.
1:08:18
Speaker 3: Keaton Kabeca was the punt returner last week when Tate
1:08:22
Speaker 3: Nagy was not available. Tate's the guy that had the
1:08:25
Speaker 3: 72-yard punt return touchdown you alluded to versus Arizona State.
1:08:29
Speaker 3: If that name Nagy sounds familiar, his dad is the
1:08:33
Speaker 3: OC of the New York Giants, previously head coach with
1:08:36
Speaker 3: the Chicago Bears. O.C. for Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs.
1:08:40
Speaker 3: That's how we got Tate. He was living in the
1:08:43
Speaker 3: Kansas City area when his dad was working with the
1:08:45
Speaker 3: Chiefs the first time around. And Kansas recruited him, former
1:08:50
Speaker 3: high school quarterback, but has great instincts and shiftiness back there.
1:08:55
Speaker 3: Also is a tremendous receiver in terms of may not
1:08:58
Speaker 3: have the measurables. that, wow, you're getting off the bus,
1:09:01
Speaker 3: but he's not afraid to go over the middle and
1:09:03
Speaker 3: make that tough cash in traffic and has tremendous hands.
1:09:06
Speaker 3: But Kabeca was the guy last week, and we'll see
1:09:10
Speaker 3: what combination of those two are available on Saturday. But
1:09:13
Speaker 3: they have had some great success in that regard, and
1:09:16
Speaker 3: they've been forcing a ton of punts I think it
1:09:18
Speaker 3: was nine versus Arizona State. It might have been that
1:09:21
Speaker 3: same number last week versus Middle Tennessee. So excellent in
1:09:25
Speaker 3: the punt return. Punt and kick coverage has left a
1:09:29
Speaker 3: little something to be desired, particularly kickoff coverage. That's been
1:09:32
Speaker 3: a vulnerability the last couple of weeks and needs to
1:09:35
Speaker 3: get shored up. But it's been a major point of
1:09:37
Speaker 3: emphasis this week, and hopefully we'll see some progress there
1:09:40
Speaker 3: on Saturday night.
1:09:41
Speaker 1: Big picture standpoint. Look, Utah at home is a tough
1:09:45
Speaker 1: out for anybody. So even if it doesn't go all
1:09:47
Speaker 1: that great for your Jayhawks this weekend, what do you
1:09:50
Speaker 1: feel the ceiling of this team is in a very,
1:09:53
Speaker 1: for me at least, unpredictable and hard to figure out
1:09:56
Speaker 1: Big 12 conference?
1:09:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good way to phrase it. I think
1:10:00
Speaker 3: anybody can be had on any given night in this league.
1:10:04
Speaker 3: And it's why, you know, the... razor thin margin between
1:10:08
Speaker 3: being a seven and five team, which at Kansas, you
1:10:12
Speaker 3: go seven and five more years than not, they'll, they'll
1:10:14
Speaker 3: raise a statue for you. Cause we just haven't had
1:10:16
Speaker 3: that sustained consistent bowl game every December type success. The
1:10:22
Speaker 3: razor thin margin between seven and five and five and
1:10:26
Speaker 3: seven comes down just a couple of plays. I mean,
1:10:29
Speaker 3: I don't have to tell you, OCU, you go back
1:10:31
Speaker 3: to the last November senior day at KU and they
1:10:35
Speaker 3: had two end zone interceptions, otherwise could have won that
1:10:38
Speaker 3: game against a top 15 Utah team. And what does
1:10:41
Speaker 3: that do for our program? Makes us bowl eligible for
1:10:43
Speaker 3: the third time in four years, makes the one year
1:10:47
Speaker 3: blip on the radar of not going to a bowl
1:10:50
Speaker 3: game feel like a distant memory. And instead... Those plays
1:10:54
Speaker 3: aren't made by the Jayhawks. They're made by the Utes.
1:10:56
Speaker 3: We finished five and seven just on the outside looking in,
1:10:59
Speaker 3: and suddenly it's back-to-back years of this in a bowl game,
1:11:02
Speaker 3: and you feel a little bit more pressure coming into
1:11:04
Speaker 3: this year to get back to that trajectory they were
1:11:07
Speaker 3: on before it. My point of bringing that up is
1:11:09
Speaker 3: not to be critical, but to say they've been so close.
1:11:12
Speaker 5: And, buddy, I can point out eight.
1:11:14
Speaker 3: Games in the last two years where we had a
1:11:16
Speaker 3: four-quarter lead at least halfway through the fourth, and for
1:11:20
Speaker 3: one reason or another, they let the lead slip. And
1:11:23
Speaker 3: many times it was the self-inflicted wound with an untimely
1:11:26
Speaker 3: turnover or something that flipped the game at game point.
1:11:30
Speaker 3: And that's how close they've been. Even if you get
1:11:33
Speaker 3: a fourth of those, not half of them, a fourth
1:11:36
Speaker 3: of them, you're going to bowl games each of the
1:11:38
Speaker 3: last two years. So when you ask for what's the ceiling,
1:11:41
Speaker 3: what's the big picture? You know, we need to win
1:11:43
Speaker 3: those 50-50 games and losing the Arizona State game is
1:11:47
Speaker 3: one that certainly puts Kansas behind the eight ball a
1:11:49
Speaker 3: little bit here in getting to six wins this year.
1:11:52
Speaker 3: You're going to have to steal a couple you're not
1:11:54
Speaker 3: supposed to get. And if you look at our schedule...
1:11:57
Speaker 3: The next four weeks shape up to be quite a
1:11:59
Speaker 3: gauntlet starting on Saturday night. But you go to K-State,
1:12:03
Speaker 3: you know, they've won every game for the last 18
1:12:05
Speaker 3: years of that matchup heading into this one. You got
1:12:07
Speaker 3: Baylor at home after that is way better than what
1:12:10
Speaker 3: many thought back in the summertime at TCU to follow.
1:12:14
Speaker 3: Got to find a way to steal a couple in there.
1:12:16
Speaker 3: But to your point, I think this league is so
1:12:19
Speaker 3: good that teams that are thought of as middle-of-the-pack teams
1:12:23
Speaker 3: can absolutely jump up and get you if you're not careful.
1:12:26
Speaker 3: Kansas has to be one of those teams. And while
1:12:28
Speaker 3: they caught some teams by surprise in 2022 and 2023,
1:12:32
Speaker 3: they had more of a target on their back the
1:12:34
Speaker 3: last couple of years. That target's gone. Now you've got
1:12:37
Speaker 3: to play that role of spoiler again, and hopefully this
1:12:39
Speaker 3: club has the moxie to do it. I think they will.
1:12:42
Speaker 3: I think we can get to six wins, but certainly
1:12:45
Speaker 3: the margin for error is very small.
1:12:48
Speaker 1: Help me figure out, at least here in week five,
1:12:51
Speaker 1: week six, what the conference is. Who is the best team?
1:12:55
Speaker 1: Who are the best teams? I don't think anyone's abysmally bad.
1:12:59
Speaker 1: Maybe Colorado, we'll see. But if you're handicapping kind of
1:13:03
Speaker 1: your top four, who are they?
1:13:07
Speaker 3: I'm excited to see Saturday night, to experience your whole
1:13:11
Speaker 3: field advantage, to see how good the youths are, because
1:13:14
Speaker 3: we've got all these ranked teams in the top 20
1:13:18
Speaker 3: right now. I guess you could lump Houston in there
1:13:20
Speaker 3: and say top 22. And we're trying to figure out
1:13:24
Speaker 3: how good are they really? Texas Tech, that's the school
1:13:27
Speaker 3: I used to work for. I have a ton of
1:13:28
Speaker 3: respect for Joy Maguire and that program and their resources
1:13:31
Speaker 3: and Cody Campbell and all that. But they don't necessarily
1:13:34
Speaker 3: look like world beaters out to shoot, do they? They
1:13:36
Speaker 3: look really good at 5-0. I'd take that in a heartbeat.
1:13:40
Speaker 3: But they don't look unbeatable or otherworldly by any means. BYU,
1:13:45
Speaker 3: similar story now, eighth-ranked in the country. They escaped TCU
1:13:50
Speaker 3: at 17-10, a low-scoring affair. didn't blow the doors off
1:13:55
Speaker 3: Arizona at home. I don't know that they're, you know,
1:13:59
Speaker 3: otherworldly either. And so again, I know we've got a
1:14:02
Speaker 3: lot of Cougars listening to the broadcast, BYU fans, that is, that,
1:14:05
Speaker 3: you know, probably feel like they're the class of the
1:14:07
Speaker 3: conference and maybe they will prove to be, but two
1:14:10
Speaker 3: weeks into this thing, or for a team like Kansas,
1:14:12
Speaker 3: it's only played one league game. I still think there's
1:14:15
Speaker 3: a lot of moving and shaking to go on. And,
1:14:17
Speaker 3: you We've got some pretenders perhaps that need to prove
1:14:21
Speaker 3: their contenders. And we've got some middle tier teams that
1:14:25
Speaker 3: could still rise up. But to me, you know, right
1:14:28
Speaker 3: now we'd have to say it's, it's BYU tech, Utah
1:14:32
Speaker 3: and Oklahoma state, just based on what the rankings tell us.
1:14:34
Speaker 3: I'm not so sure one or two teams from the
1:14:36
Speaker 3: middle tier don't upset the apple cart before it's all
1:14:39
Speaker 3: said and done. And you know, who wins those 50,
1:14:41
Speaker 3: 50 games, those ones score games. That's going to determine
1:14:44
Speaker 3: your league champ as it always does. But especially this
1:14:47
Speaker 3: year where the top, the bottom differential, you got a
1:14:50
Speaker 3: lot of parody there that I think is going to
1:14:52
Speaker 3: make for some really exciting football.
1:14:55
Speaker 1: I would, Be irresponsible if I didn't ask you something
1:14:59
Speaker 1: about everyone's favorite new jazz man. The last time you
1:15:02
Speaker 1: and I had a conversation was pre-NBA draft, if I'm
1:15:05
Speaker 1: not mistaken, and came away from that conversation, you gave
1:15:10
Speaker 1: a testimony of what this kid is and was and
1:15:14
Speaker 1: how maybe the messaging around him in college basketball got
1:15:17
Speaker 1: a little bit skewed toward the negative. And so far,
1:15:20
Speaker 1: the experience in Salt Lake City has been remarkably positive.
1:15:23
Speaker 1: Everything's coming up. you know, aces with Darren Peterson. And
1:15:27
Speaker 1: last night he had a beautiful performance in a preseason game.
1:15:31
Speaker 1: Can't judge too much off a preseason, but 23 points
1:15:34
Speaker 1: in 30 minutes is what jazz fans hope he is
1:15:36
Speaker 1: capable of. And the, just wanted your thoughts on the
1:15:40
Speaker 1: early returns of Darren Peterson in the NBA.
1:15:44
Speaker 3: I thought you were talking about Shreyas Lada, your new
1:15:46
Speaker 3: beat writer that you stole from Kansas as well. Everybody's
1:15:49
Speaker 3: new favorite jazz man. Shout out to Shreyas. I know
1:15:52
Speaker 3: he's a friend of the show as well. Yes, we
1:15:54
Speaker 3: are so excited about Darren Peterson and everything I said
1:15:57
Speaker 3: to you back in May and June. I echo now
1:16:00
Speaker 3: and I hope you start to see more and more
1:16:02
Speaker 3: of that come to fruition. This is a guy who's
1:16:06
Speaker 3: His work ethic and his desire to not just be
1:16:09
Speaker 3: great but be elite is truly on a different tier.
1:16:12
Speaker 3: And there was a lot of misinformation. There was a
1:16:15
Speaker 3: lot of confusion over his availability or lack thereof, what
1:16:19
Speaker 3: was causing these cramping issues. They finally got to the
1:16:22
Speaker 3: bottom of all of that. But what I tried to
1:16:24
Speaker 3: tell your listeners back in the summertime was– He was
1:16:27
Speaker 3: still beloved by his teammates. He was still respected tremendously
1:16:31
Speaker 3: by his coaches. Bill Self saying, this is the best
1:16:33
Speaker 3: pro prospect I've ever coached. And think about that. He
1:16:36
Speaker 3: coached an NBA MVP in Joel Embiid and a first
1:16:40
Speaker 3: overall pick in Andrew Wiggins. He's coached some big-time guys.
1:16:45
Speaker 3: This is a guy that we really feel if he's
1:16:48
Speaker 3: blessed with good health, he's clearly in a good organization
1:16:52
Speaker 3: that's got great infrastructure around him. I think he could
1:16:54
Speaker 3: be a perennial all-star. Whether that starts this season or
1:16:57
Speaker 3: in year two, I think he could be a yearly
1:17:00
Speaker 3: guy that you slot into that. Similar to Jayhawk's last
1:17:03
Speaker 3: player to do that from a wing scorer position in
1:17:06
Speaker 3: Paul Pierce, who was a 10-time NBA all-star. The Kobe
1:17:10
Speaker 3: Bryant comparisons that Bill Simmons put on him early in
1:17:12
Speaker 3: his career prep career, heading into his college career. I
1:17:16
Speaker 3: think while certainly Kobe's an all-time great, it's tough to
1:17:19
Speaker 3: have lofty, you know, true parallels there until you get
1:17:23
Speaker 3: some trophies won. There's a reason why he likened his
1:17:27
Speaker 3: skill set and his game to the Black Mamba. And
1:17:31
Speaker 3: I think that you're seeing some of those. I see
1:17:33
Speaker 3: the tweets where the highlights are showing, they're like, who
1:17:35
Speaker 3: does this remind you of? You kind of see some
1:17:37
Speaker 3: of that. It's just my hope for Darren that he
1:17:40
Speaker 3: has good health and that he's You know, he's in
1:17:43
Speaker 3: a situation where he can really thrive and continue to
1:17:46
Speaker 3: blossom in the ways that he only began to scratch
1:17:50
Speaker 3: the surface of here simply because the health and availability
1:17:54
Speaker 3: wasn't what he'd hoped a year ago. But terrific young man,
1:17:57
Speaker 3: fabulous competitor. He wants to be special. And he lives
1:18:02
Speaker 3: in the gym, man. That work ethic is already starting
1:18:04
Speaker 3: to bear fruit with Utah. Everybody inside that building knows
1:18:07
Speaker 3: what I'm talking about. And I can't wait to see
1:18:10
Speaker 3: him reap a big harvest of wins and big scoring
1:18:13
Speaker 3: games and being a great teammate and all of the
1:18:15
Speaker 3: above in the seasons to come.
1:18:17
Speaker 1: Well, Brian, appreciate you giving us time today. You got
1:18:20
Speaker 1: my number. So if you need anything while you're on
1:18:22
Speaker 1: your trip here to Salt Lake city, please let me know.
1:18:25
Speaker 1: And yeah, the hope is that we get a fun
1:18:27
Speaker 1: game at rice cycle stadium and you get to experience
1:18:30
Speaker 1: that atmosphere fully.
1:18:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:18:32
Speaker 1: Much appreciated.
1:18:33
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on. I hope we'll do another
1:18:35
Speaker 3: one of these in basketball season and I'll definitely hit
1:18:38
Speaker 3: you up later in the week, my friend. Thanks again.
1:18:40
Speaker 1: All right. Appreciate you, Brian. Brian Haney is the Play-by-play
1:18:43
Speaker 1: voice of the Kansas Jayhawks. Kind of have to give
1:18:46
Speaker 1: us some time today. He'll be on the Kansas radio call.
1:18:49
Speaker 1: You can hear 10 hours of game day coverage on
1:18:52
Speaker 1: ESPN 700, your home of the Utes, this Saturday. Porter
1:18:55
Speaker 1: Larson's got a pregame show at 4.15, 8.15 kickoff, right
1:19:02
Speaker 1: here on your home of the Utes, ESPN 700, 92.1 FM.
1:19:12
Speaker 4: Feeling out of the loop? Let's catch up on today's
1:19:15
Speaker 4: biggest headlines in the Daily News Dump, where we flush
1:19:18
Speaker 4: out the biggest stories of the day on the Sean
1:19:21
Speaker 4: O'Connell Show and Utah's number one sports talk, ESPN 792.1 FM.
1:19:27
Speaker 4: Brought to you by Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. Just
1:19:30
Speaker 4: look for the truck with the duck.
1:19:36
Speaker 1: Time for the Daily Dump. Look for the truck with
1:19:38
Speaker 1: the duck for any of your drain cleaning, plumbing, HVAC,
1:19:42
Speaker 1: even excavation needs. Tell them OC sent you. Justice for Juice.
1:19:47
Speaker 1: Kyle Juszczyk, who, if you remember, we reported last week,
1:19:51
Speaker 1: was fined, incorrectly fined, for pantomiming like he was drinking
1:19:59
Speaker 1: some juice because that's his nickname, Juice. and the NFL
1:20:03
Speaker 1: decided that it was him pantomiming drinking beer, and so
1:20:07
Speaker 1: they fined him like $ 15, 000 for it. That fine has
1:20:12
Speaker 1: been rescinded, and Juice receives the vindication he deserves. Juice
1:20:19
Speaker 1: is his nickname. If someone's nickname is Milk, and they
1:20:22
Speaker 1: make it look like they're drinking milk, you don't say, oh,
1:20:25
Speaker 1: they must have meant a beer. Kyle Juszczyk will not
1:20:29
Speaker 1: have to pay his fine. It's the right thing to do. Obviously,
1:20:36
Speaker 1: you could at the time, it was like, oh, he's
1:20:38
Speaker 1: conveniently he doesn't even drink beer is what he said.
1:20:41
Speaker 1: But also it felt like, oh, he's conveniently trying to
1:20:45
Speaker 1: dismiss something that the league clearly has decided they have
1:20:49
Speaker 1: a vendetta against by saying, oh, it's juice. It's not beer.
1:20:54
Speaker 1: But then you think about, like you just said, that's
1:20:56
Speaker 1: his nickname. Like, why would it? And he doesn't even
1:20:59
Speaker 1: drink beer. Why would he be pantomiming beer? And also,
1:21:03
Speaker 1: why does the NFL care about that specifically? I get the,
1:21:07
Speaker 1: I get the guns thing. I get the, the nose
1:21:11
Speaker 1: wipe was a, was a, seemed kind of silly at
1:21:14
Speaker 1: the time, but you learned that that's a gang sign, right?
1:21:16
Speaker 1: We talked about that on the show. You kind of
1:21:19
Speaker 1: understand those things. Don't really understand why there's a problem with,
1:21:23
Speaker 1: even if they are intending, like, this is me guzzling
1:21:26
Speaker 1: beer after a touchdown. Like, What's the problem with pantomiming that?
1:21:31
Speaker 1: I don't really know. All right. Justice for Juice. This
1:21:41
Speaker 1: is actually huge news. The Philadelphia Eagles got news from
1:21:47
Speaker 1: Lane Johnson starting tackle that he is retiring effective immediately.
1:21:55
Speaker 1: He announced this on Tuesday, yesterday. He was inactive in
1:22:01
Speaker 1: the 24-20 loss to the Rams this past Sunday. It
1:22:07
Speaker 1: came out that it was reported in Philadelphia that he
1:22:10
Speaker 1: was out for unexpected personal reasons. And he announced in
1:22:14
Speaker 1: a statement that he is retiring to focus on his
1:22:18
Speaker 1: mental health. His statement goes like this, Philadelphia, you truly
1:22:22
Speaker 1: are the city of brotherly love, the best fans, the
1:22:24
Speaker 1: most prideful city in the entire world. I've given it
1:22:27
Speaker 1: my all for 14 years, season after season, pushing my
1:22:30
Speaker 1: body to the max, tirelessly working my craft to not
1:22:33
Speaker 1: only live up to the legacy of the guys that
1:22:34
Speaker 1: came before me, but set a new standard of success
1:22:37
Speaker 1: for the best franchise in all the sports. I deeply
1:22:40
Speaker 1: wanted to gut it out for one more year to
1:22:43
Speaker 1: take the field with my brothers for one last season,
1:22:45
Speaker 1: but after a lot of reflection, I realized that my
1:22:47
Speaker 1: personal and family priorities in my life have changed. Right now,
1:22:51
Speaker 1: it is critical that I focus on my mental health.
1:22:53
Speaker 1: I owe it to my teammates, coaches, organization, and fans
1:22:56
Speaker 1: to have my head and heart 100% in the game.
1:22:58
Speaker 1: Right now, my heart is telling me that it's time
1:23:00
Speaker 1: to say goodbye to football. So four games in, after
1:23:04
Speaker 1: a 14-year career, he says that he is retiring. And look,
1:23:09
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do the Stephen A. Smith thing
1:23:13
Speaker 1: and criticize a guy for following his heart. Is it
1:23:17
Speaker 1: tough for your teammates? Is it hard for the organization? Yes.
1:23:21
Speaker 1: Does Lane Johnson owe Philadelphia a single dang thing?
1:23:25
Speaker 4: No.
1:23:26
Speaker 1: He was a huge part of them winning two Super Bowls.
1:23:30
Speaker 1: Only two Super Bowl wins in franchise history, by the way.
1:23:33
Speaker 3: He is... I.
1:23:35
Speaker 1: Texted Jeff Schwartz because he's our offensive line guy, and
1:23:39
Speaker 1: I was like, he's a Hall of Famer, right? He's like, yeah,
1:23:41
Speaker 1: I would make an argument he's a first ballot Hall
1:23:43
Speaker 1: of Famer. There's a lot of people who have talked
1:23:45
Speaker 1: about Lane Johnson in recent years as being, you know,
1:23:48
Speaker 1: he was.
1:23:50
Speaker 1: The top tackle in football. He's a freakish athlete. But
1:23:55
Speaker 1: beyond that, he was well known as a good teammate
1:23:58
Speaker 1: for his work ethic and things like that. And you cannot,
1:24:02
Speaker 1: if you're in a position like I'm, if you're a
1:24:05
Speaker 1: commentator on the sports world, you cannot, out of one
1:24:08
Speaker 1: side of your mouth, demand that player safety be taken seriously,
1:24:13
Speaker 1: that better initiatives for mental health that you don't want
1:24:16
Speaker 1: to see happening. all of the depression and the suicide
1:24:20
Speaker 1: and the terrible stuff that comes from, you know, the
1:24:22
Speaker 1: professional athletes, especially combat and contact sport life. You can't
1:24:27
Speaker 1: say how tragic that is. And then also criticize or
1:24:30
Speaker 1: make fun of a guy when he tells you I'm
1:24:33
Speaker 1: stepping away now so I can fix these things and
1:24:35
Speaker 1: I can focus on these things. So look, is it
1:24:38
Speaker 1: an ideal situation for the Philadelphia Eagles? No, it's probably
1:24:42
Speaker 1: not an ideal situation for Lane Johnson who in his
1:24:45
Speaker 1: own statement said, look, I wanted to keep going. I
1:24:48
Speaker 1: just can't right now. I mean, that's why he started
1:24:50
Speaker 1: the season. Like if he had felt this way where
1:24:53
Speaker 1: he just could not even try to do one more
1:24:56
Speaker 1: year in July or August in training camp or before
1:25:00
Speaker 1: he would have, he would not have played a down
1:25:03
Speaker 1: this season, preseason or otherwise. Clearly He's gotten to a
1:25:08
Speaker 1: point with his mental health and whatever other things where
1:25:13
Speaker 1: he's like, hey, I know I started this year. I
1:25:17
Speaker 1: know I'm a person that wants to finish things that
1:25:20
Speaker 1: I started. I cannot do that the rest of this season, though.
1:25:25
Speaker 1: So you got to feel like it's a tough spot
1:25:27
Speaker 1: for him, too. And look, I will applaud your physical
1:25:33
Speaker 1: health and your mental health. when you're an athlete are
1:25:36
Speaker 1: so closely tied together that you almost can't really separate
1:25:40
Speaker 1: the two. In a lot of cases, you know, a
1:25:42
Speaker 1: lot of guys will talk about, well, I don't have
1:25:44
Speaker 1: a mental health problem. I have chronic pain. Well, chronic
1:25:47
Speaker 1: pain becomes a mental health problem because yes, your body
1:25:51
Speaker 1: is experiencing the pain and the nerve endings in your
1:25:54
Speaker 1: arm or your shoulder or your knee or whatever are
1:25:57
Speaker 1: the ones that are inflamed and screaming at you. but
1:26:00
Speaker 1: it's your brain that has to process those things. And
1:26:02
Speaker 1: it's your brain that has to process your inability to
1:26:05
Speaker 1: compete at the highest level for your body to do
1:26:08
Speaker 1: what it normally can do for the feeling of betrayal that,
1:26:12
Speaker 1: you know, if an injury is not handled the right
1:26:14
Speaker 1: way by you or by somebody else, or just like the, Hey,
1:26:17
Speaker 1: this is bad luck for me. I mean, these two
1:26:20
Speaker 1: things are very closely knit together and every 14 year
1:26:23
Speaker 1: veteran of the NFL is has bumps, bruises, chronic injury,
1:26:28
Speaker 1: chronic pain. Every single one. There's not one out there
1:26:31
Speaker 1: that doesn't. Even the kickers and the punters, your body,
1:26:34
Speaker 1: when you're into your late 30s and your 40s, doesn't
1:26:36
Speaker 1: want to do the things that Lane Johnson has been
1:26:38
Speaker 1: doing for the last 14 years. So I'm not an
1:26:43
Speaker 1: Eagle fan. I'm not even a Lane Johnson fan. But
1:26:46
Speaker 1: I think that the right thing to do in a
1:26:49
Speaker 1: case like this, you don't have to have a take
1:26:51
Speaker 1: on everything. The right thing to do is you just
1:26:54
Speaker 1: got to like, all right, man, well, wish you well.
1:26:56
Speaker 1: Sorry that it worked out this way. Sorry that the
1:26:59
Speaker 1: timing isn't ideal for anybody. But we want our athletes,
1:27:04
Speaker 1: especially our prominent athletes, to be able to live lives
1:27:09
Speaker 1: that allow you to keep looking up to them. If
1:27:13
Speaker 1: he needs to do this so that he is in
1:27:15
Speaker 1: the right head space, body space, spiritual space, whatever, then
1:27:19
Speaker 1: you just have to accept that he needs to do it.
1:27:21
Speaker 1: And maybe it's an Aaron Donald situation where he can
1:27:24
Speaker 1: come back in a year. Maybe it's an Aaron Donald
1:27:27
Speaker 1: situation where he can come back in two years. Maybe
1:27:29
Speaker 1: the Eagles are primed for a Super Bowl run somehow
1:27:32
Speaker 1: at the end of the year. And they're like, Lane,
1:27:34
Speaker 1: can we activate you again? Do you feel a little
1:27:37
Speaker 1: bit better? Have you gotten a therapist? Are things a
1:27:40
Speaker 1: little bit better? You never know what the future holds.
1:27:43
Speaker 1: But he's given you, he's emptied the gas tank for
1:27:46
Speaker 1: your franchise. You can't be mad about it. And When
1:27:50
Speaker 1: you go tune in and you see the Twitter Stephen A.
1:27:54
Speaker 1: Smith rant making fun of a guy, a guy of
1:27:56
Speaker 1: this stature and this status within a franchise for walking away,
1:28:01
Speaker 1: that's the wrong thing to do. It just is. You
1:28:03
Speaker 1: can't say, oh, you know what? We have to treat
1:28:09
Speaker 1: these people like human beings. Player safety matters to me.
1:28:12
Speaker 1: And then when they make a decision they feel is
1:28:13
Speaker 1: best for their safety, their health, their mental well-being, then
1:28:18
Speaker 1: lambaste them for it. Silly.
1:28:20
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:28:21
Speaker 1: I'll say this, too. It's somewhat for different reasons, but
1:28:26
Speaker 1: I feel similarly about this as I felt about Andrew
1:28:30
Speaker 1: Luck stepping away right before the season started back in
1:28:33
Speaker 1: 2019 or whatever. And that was, you know, panned by
1:28:37
Speaker 1: a lot of people as a Colts fan. I obviously
1:28:40
Speaker 1: was like, was really disappointed. That was kind of the
1:28:43
Speaker 1: last season that I felt like, Hey, maybe they could
1:28:46
Speaker 1: make a run at a super bowl here. It's been
1:28:48
Speaker 1: a long, what? Seven, eight years.
1:28:50
Speaker 3: Right.
1:28:53
Speaker 1: For different, I say for different reasons, because for Andrew luck,
1:28:56
Speaker 1: I'm sure mental health played a part in it, but like,
1:28:59
Speaker 1: anyone who followed his career in the NFL knew just
1:29:03
Speaker 1: how physically dismantled he was because for a lot of
1:29:08
Speaker 1: that run with the Colts, they had a subpar offensive
1:29:12
Speaker 1: line and he led the league in getting sacked, right?
1:29:15
Speaker 1: Or was near the top of the league and getting sacked,
1:29:17
Speaker 1: missed multiple years. He had a lacerated, was it a
1:29:20
Speaker 1: kidney or something because of how hard he was getting
1:29:23
Speaker 1: hit at one point. And it was like, okay, I
1:29:26
Speaker 1: hate this because might, have an outside shot at going
1:29:31
Speaker 1: to the AFC championship game or beyond if he's playing,
1:29:34
Speaker 1: but also this guy gave everything for a relatively short
1:29:40
Speaker 1: amount of time and got barely any help to, as
1:29:45
Speaker 1: far as getting protection for him. I don't really have
1:29:49
Speaker 1: any question as to why he's thinking, you know what,
1:29:51
Speaker 1: maybe I don't want to play football anymore. Lane Johnson,
1:29:55
Speaker 1: different Reasons, but feels kind of similar where it's like, hey,
1:30:00
Speaker 1: you can be mad at this, but it's probably much
1:30:03
Speaker 1: more fair to just be like, you know what? Do
1:30:05
Speaker 1: whatever you feel is right, because clearly you're in a
1:30:09
Speaker 1: you're feeling like you're in a tough spot because this
1:30:11
Speaker 1: is not the time that's convenient for anyone to step away.
1:30:16
Speaker 1: So go ahead and do whatever you feel is right.
1:30:18
Speaker 1: So good luck to Lane Johnson. Now, here's another thing.
1:30:21
Speaker 1: retirement story that I think is in a lot of ways,
1:30:24
Speaker 1: a lot more problematic. Dana Altman, Oregon basketball coach has
1:30:29
Speaker 1: announced his retirement. The college basketball season begins in less
1:30:33
Speaker 1: than a month. And he is the winningest coach in
1:30:36
Speaker 1: Oregon basketball history. 16 seasons with the Ducks. He's been
1:30:41
Speaker 1: coaching for 40 years. It's an appropriate time for somebody
1:30:45
Speaker 1: like him to retire. Things at Oregon basketball have not
1:30:50
Speaker 1: been ideal as of late. 12 and 20 on the
1:30:54
Speaker 1: year last year. But he had won 20 games in
1:30:57
Speaker 1: 15 seasons ahead of that. The timing of this, though...
1:31:03
Speaker 1: This is not your body is breaking down. At least
1:31:06
Speaker 1: we don't know that it is. We hope it's not.
1:31:08
Speaker 1: I hope that coach is healthy. But when you're a
1:31:12
Speaker 1: player who can't play anymore, you just got to walk away.
1:31:15
Speaker 1: If you're a coach who can't coach anymore, hopefully you
1:31:19
Speaker 1: can see that coming a little bit further out in
1:31:22
Speaker 1: the best interest of your program. This leaves Oregon in
1:31:25
Speaker 1: a spot where the only choice is to elevate someone
1:31:29
Speaker 1: who's already within the program to an interim coach. and
1:31:31
Speaker 1: let them try to earn the job permanently. Tony Stubblefield,
1:31:35
Speaker 1: by the way, assistant coach is the going to be
1:31:37
Speaker 1: interim coach and obviously going to have a great runway
1:31:41
Speaker 1: here to try to get the full-time coaching job. He said,
1:31:44
Speaker 1: I have, I have had to really, I've had to
1:31:47
Speaker 1: make two really tough decisions in my coaching career. The
1:31:49
Speaker 1: first was leaving Creighton, a place my family and I
1:31:52
Speaker 1: dearly love to come to Oregon. This is the second
1:31:55
Speaker 1: I'm going to miss my coaches, my players, and our
1:31:56
Speaker 1: incredible fans more than I can express. but I know
1:31:59
Speaker 1: this is the right thing to do at this time.
1:32:01
Speaker 1: It's bad timing coach. It's really bad timing, but you
1:32:06
Speaker 1: gotta do it. You gotta, you gotta step away. If
1:32:08
Speaker 1: that's where your heart is. Yikes. If you're an Oregon
1:32:12
Speaker 1: basketball fan, if you're an Oregon booster and supporter, you're
1:32:15
Speaker 1: just like, all right, we're focusing on football. We're focusing
1:32:18
Speaker 1: on women's basketball because you probably kind of have to
1:32:21
Speaker 1: write off this season. Although maybe it provides for one
1:32:24
Speaker 1: of those like great unexpected surprise stories where Things are
1:32:29
Speaker 1: actually better under the interim coach. But, man, that is
1:32:32
Speaker 1: a tough spot for Oregon to be in. Oh, here's
1:32:35
Speaker 1: another retirement story. This one, I think, is a lot more, well,
1:32:41
Speaker 1: I don't think. It is globally impactful. Leo Messi played
1:32:47
Speaker 1: his final game for the Argentina national team yesterday, scored
1:32:51
Speaker 1: a goal, assisted two other goals. It was an international-friendly
1:32:55
Speaker 1: Argentina against Benin. Great choice. by the way, making sure
1:33:00
Speaker 1: that you're going out on virtually a guaranteed win. He
1:33:04
Speaker 1: said this, Leo Messi, tearfully, everyone in the stadium crying, right?
1:33:11
Speaker 1: Saying goodbye to one of the all time icons of
1:33:14
Speaker 1: international soccer. I'd love to keep coming back forever because
1:33:17
Speaker 1: playing for our, the Argentine national team is the most
1:33:20
Speaker 1: beautiful thing that can happen to you. The most beautiful thing.
1:33:24
Speaker 1: So here's, here's the deal. They brought goats to the
1:33:28
Speaker 1: stadium because he's the greatest of all time. They flew
1:33:32
Speaker 1: his jersey over the stadium. They sent him out the
1:33:36
Speaker 1: right way. They were wearing special commemorative shirts. It was
1:33:40
Speaker 1: as clean and emotional and spectacular of a send-off as
1:33:46
Speaker 1: you're going to find for someone like Leo Messi outside
1:33:49
Speaker 1: of a World Cup atmosphere. In a friendly, there's only
1:33:52
Speaker 1: so much you can do, right? My question is, When
1:33:58
Speaker 1: you go out for your national team like this, how
1:34:02
Speaker 1: do you then come back and play for Miami? When
1:34:06
Speaker 1: you say goodbye, when you're crying about your departure from
1:34:11
Speaker 1: the game and your ability to wear your country's flag
1:34:16
Speaker 1: and shirt on your back, how do you then go,
1:34:19
Speaker 1: but I'm also going to go back and put on
1:34:21
Speaker 1: some pink and run around Miami? and do that. I
1:34:24
Speaker 1: just don't know how you do those two things. I mean,
1:34:26
Speaker 1: I get it. It's a separate retirement. Intellectually, I understand this,
1:34:32
Speaker 1: where your ability to keep playing for the international squad,
1:34:37
Speaker 1: he's stepping aside now so that they can develop young
1:34:41
Speaker 1: players and there's a spot and all that kind of stuff.
1:34:43
Speaker 1: And it's not all about him for the next world
1:34:46
Speaker 1: cup because he doesn't intend on playing in the next
1:34:48
Speaker 1: world cup. He's saying goodbye to this because the calendar
1:34:51
Speaker 1: and the cycle is very drastically different on that front. But,
1:34:56
Speaker 1: but also, also how then do you go back and
1:35:00
Speaker 1: be like, but as a professional, I'm still going to
1:35:02
Speaker 1: do it as an international representing my country. And the
1:35:07
Speaker 1: thing that matters to me most I'm done. but now
1:35:12
Speaker 1: I'm still going to go pour into soccer on the
1:35:14
Speaker 1: professional landscape in a place that even though people love
1:35:18
Speaker 1: him here are never going to love him as much
1:35:21
Speaker 1: as Argentina loves him. Like that's just, it's not possible.
1:35:25
Speaker 1: He is the favorite son of the nation or, you know,
1:35:29
Speaker 1: even not loved here, even as much as he is
1:35:33
Speaker 1: in Spain after all the years he spent at Barcelona. Right.
1:35:36
Speaker 1: So It is an interesting thing. I believe Neymar did
1:35:40
Speaker 1: the exact same thing after Brazil's exit from the World Cup.
1:35:44
Speaker 1: He specifically said, I'm retiring from the national team. I'm
1:35:48
Speaker 1: not sure of his club team right now. But if
1:35:52
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, he's continuing to play club soccer at
1:35:55
Speaker 1: the professional level. So I would say it's probably just
1:36:00
Speaker 1: more the norm in soccer than it is in any
1:36:03
Speaker 1: other sport that we're more familiar with, O.C., But also,
1:36:08
Speaker 1: I wonder if there's just a huge compartmentalization that goes
1:36:13
Speaker 1: on with these soccer stars where they're like, OK, yes,
1:36:16
Speaker 1: I can feel this way about stepping away from soccer
1:36:21
Speaker 1: for my national team and feel like it's a forever goodbye.
1:36:25
Speaker 1: And yet I can still feel like I'm completely in it.
1:36:29
Speaker 1: for my club team in a way that we just
1:36:31
Speaker 1: don't see in American sports. Like, I probably just don't
1:36:34
Speaker 1: understand it because you don't get this from, from like,
1:36:39
Speaker 1: American Olympian basketball players. No, they don't. They don't announce
1:36:43
Speaker 1: a retirement. It's just a different format. And so retired
1:36:46
Speaker 1: for good, whether it's Olympics or you don't say goodbye
1:36:52
Speaker 1: to wearing red, white, and blue, but I'll see you
1:36:55
Speaker 1: in my Lakers uniform next week. You don't do that
1:36:59
Speaker 1: in basketball. There's not really a context for this with
1:37:02
Speaker 1: baseball because the world baseball classic is not anywhere near
1:37:06
Speaker 1: what international soccer is. Same thing with football. There's no like,
1:37:10
Speaker 1: suiting up for your country. I just, I have a
1:37:13
Speaker 1: hard time again, intellectually. It makes sense, but emotionally you're,
1:37:19
Speaker 1: you're saying, you're saying goodbye. You're bidding farewell to the
1:37:24
Speaker 1: thing that defined you as a, as an athlete more
1:37:27
Speaker 1: than anything else, right? Even though he's incredibly well known
1:37:31
Speaker 1: as a professional, what defined him as an athlete and
1:37:35
Speaker 1: made him the icon that he is, is the fact that,
1:37:39
Speaker 1: As a wonderful professional, then he brought that prominence and
1:37:42
Speaker 1: a World Cup victory back to Argentina. He played 208
1:37:46
Speaker 1: games for his country. International soccer does this thing. I
1:37:52
Speaker 1: would not be able to compartmentalize this way. Where I
1:37:55
Speaker 1: was like, okay, the height of my soccer career is
1:37:58
Speaker 1: in this shirt. Now I'm going to go keep playing.
1:38:03
Speaker 1: It would feel like to me... maybe, and this is
1:38:07
Speaker 1: probably the wrong, a false equivalency, but it would be like, if,
1:38:12
Speaker 1: if you're like, Hey, I, I acknowledge now I'm 40
1:38:15
Speaker 1: years old. I am not going to go play for
1:38:17
Speaker 1: the Utah jazz anymore. Goodbye. But if you want to
1:38:20
Speaker 1: see me, I'll be with the stars for the rest
1:38:24
Speaker 1: of the season.
1:38:25
Speaker 4: Yeah.
1:38:25
Speaker 1: What, what, do you mean? No, I'm done in the NBA. Okay, cool.
1:38:30
Speaker 1: But the G league is still going to be there
1:38:32
Speaker 1: for me. The G league. I'll still be full heart
1:38:35
Speaker 1: and soul into that. It's not an insult to MLS soccer,
1:38:39
Speaker 1: but it's just not, it's just not, not the same.
1:38:42
Speaker 4: Yeah.
1:38:42
Speaker 1: It does feel like it's that kind of a level
1:38:45
Speaker 1: change from Argentina, Argentine national team to, MLS play all
1:38:51
Speaker 1: due respect. It kind of, the perception feels that way.
1:38:54
Speaker 1: Like he's got young kids. He is, he has club ownership.
1:38:58
Speaker 1: He still gets to remain close to soccer if he
1:39:01
Speaker 1: wants to, without actually playing soccer. So we'll see how
1:39:05
Speaker 1: it plays out with Leo Messi. We probably won't talk
1:39:08
Speaker 1: about it much because of course we won't, but he
1:39:11
Speaker 1: played his final game for Argentina and I can't even
1:39:15
Speaker 1: begin to pretend to understand how how that feels for
1:39:20
Speaker 1: the Argentines because we don't have the equivalence of this
1:39:24
Speaker 1: with American athletes. We don't. There's not a single American
1:39:27
Speaker 1: athlete where every person in this country roots for them,
1:39:34
Speaker 1: has a poster on the wall, wears the shirt. That
1:39:37
Speaker 1: just doesn't exist in the United States of America. It
1:39:40
Speaker 1: never will. Our Team USA men's basketball teams are beloved.
1:39:46
Speaker 1: But none of us are universally LeBron James fans. Certainly not.
1:39:51
Speaker 1: None of us are universally Kevin Durant fans because of
1:39:55
Speaker 1: what they brought on the national stage for our country.
1:39:58
Speaker 1: That seems to be the way it is for great
1:40:02
Speaker 1: soccer stars in their own country. Lionel Messi, first and foremost.
1:40:07
Speaker 1: It's just different. If you're a Portuguese sports fan, you
1:40:14
Speaker 1: have some affection for Ronaldo. If you're an American sports fan,
1:40:19
Speaker 1: I guess you probably on some level have an appreciation
1:40:25
Speaker 1: for like Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, but those are not,
1:40:32
Speaker 1: it's not the same. It's still not at that level.
1:40:35
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. It's nowhere near the level. Just so this
1:40:38
Speaker 1: phenomenon cannot exist in the United States of America. And
1:40:41
Speaker 1: to watch Ronaldo, a phenomenon that doesn't exist here unfold
1:40:46
Speaker 1: with Argentina bidding farewell to him, uh, emotional. It's like
1:40:51
Speaker 1: cinematic the way that they handled it. And the, even
1:40:55
Speaker 1: the words he chose to use to say, it's the
1:40:58
Speaker 1: most beautiful thing that can happen to you. And then,
1:41:00
Speaker 1: and then reiterate it, the most beautiful thing. Like we, we,
1:41:05
Speaker 1: I feel like we have an idea of what our
1:41:08
Speaker 1: athletes that represent us at the Olympics and at the
1:41:11
Speaker 1: World Cup, we have an idea of what the pride
1:41:16
Speaker 1: that goes into that for these athletes. But I don't
1:41:19
Speaker 1: know that I'm reading that and going, that's such a
1:41:23
Speaker 1: foreign thing to say that's the most beautiful thing and
1:41:26
Speaker 1: to say it with the emotion that he said it.
1:41:29
Speaker 1: Not even our Olympians, at least not all the time,
1:41:34
Speaker 1: feel that way. It seems like eight, seven, seven, three, five, three,
1:41:38
Speaker 1: zero 700. What, what is the closest American equivalent to
1:41:42
Speaker 1: Leo Messi in our sporting landscape? What is the, it
1:41:49
Speaker 1: is like Leo Messi to Argentina. It's like Steve Irwin
1:41:54
Speaker 1: to Australia, the crocodile hunter. Everyone loves him. You can't
1:41:58
Speaker 1: say bad word, right? RIP Leo Messi, kind of the
1:42:01
Speaker 1: same thing. Ronaldo doesn't even have the status in Portugal.
1:42:04
Speaker 1: Messi is more beloved in Argentina than Ronaldo was in
1:42:07
Speaker 1: Portugal because they, he's maintained more mystique. He's less visible
1:42:14
Speaker 1: and you don't have any negative headlines, at least not
1:42:18
Speaker 1: that I'm aware. Maybe I'm a little bit out of
1:42:20
Speaker 1: the loop on this, but Beckham and Harry Kane, the
1:42:25
Speaker 1: current English star, I suppose Wayne Rooney at a time
1:42:30
Speaker 1: was very beloved for England. I mean, I guess Beckham,
1:42:34
Speaker 1: but like, who's the closest thing? Is it, you know what?
1:42:39
Speaker 1: Pre scandal tiger woods might be the closest we've ever
1:42:44
Speaker 1: had as an American athlete. Michael Jordan might be the
1:42:48
Speaker 1: closest we have as an American athlete, but magic Johnson, maybe,
1:42:53
Speaker 1: but with Michael Jordan, they're like, we hate him here.
1:42:56
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:42:56
Speaker 1: In New York. And as much as you're like, you
1:42:59
Speaker 1: know what? I, I, Michael Jordan's amazing. And you acknowledge
1:43:02
Speaker 1: how great he is. Like there's no chance in hell
1:43:05
Speaker 1: that anyone in Salt Lake city is wearing a Michael
1:43:07
Speaker 1: Jordan dream team Jersey and not at least getting yelled
1:43:10
Speaker 1: at at school for it. We bought, my brother and
1:43:13
Speaker 1: I went to a jazz playoff game when we were
1:43:17
Speaker 1: in high school and first, first time we'd ever been
1:43:21
Speaker 1: to a jazz playoff game. Awesome experience. And at the
1:43:26
Speaker 1: fan store at the time in the arena, they sell–
1:43:31
Speaker 1: obviously they sell more than just jazz stuff. They have
1:43:34
Speaker 1: other things in there. And one of the other things
1:43:37
Speaker 1: was a really cool picture of Michael Jordan leaning on
1:43:41
Speaker 1: his hands wearing all six of his NBA rings. And
1:43:43
Speaker 1: we're huge basketball fans, right? We're like, this is really cool.
1:43:47
Speaker 1: We went in on that together, bought that. And on tracks,
1:43:54
Speaker 1: riding– riding away from the arena on tracks after the
1:43:58
Speaker 1: game where you can see us holding this, and one
1:44:01
Speaker 1: of the Jazz, one of the Delta Center ushers was like,
1:44:05
Speaker 1: you know he won two of those from us, right? Yeah.
1:44:09
Speaker 1: You're totally right. You get flagged for that sort of thing.
1:44:15
Speaker 1: Great shout from Armando on the text line. Muhammad Ali.
1:44:19
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. Muhammad Ali now? Muhammad Ali... From probably
1:44:24
Speaker 1: 1980-something on, yes. Muhammad Ali, in his prime, was a
1:44:31
Speaker 1: wildly controversial figure in the United States of America. He
1:44:34
Speaker 1: was looked as anti-American for a long time. He was
1:44:37
Speaker 1: not what Messi is in Argentina because he was loud.
1:44:43
Speaker 1: He was brash. He evaded the draft, and he protested
1:44:48
Speaker 1: in a time when a lot of people did not
1:44:51
Speaker 1: agree with that. He was like... he was not universally beloved.
1:44:56
Speaker 1: He was suspended. He was sanctioned by boxing for doing that.
1:45:00
Speaker 1: He was stripped of titles. It was, it was different.
1:45:04
Speaker 1: And now history has softened the view on Muhammad Ali.
1:45:10
Speaker 1: And I would say corrected the view on Muhammad Ali
1:45:14
Speaker 1: to where he became a universally beloved sports figure and
1:45:18
Speaker 1: an American icon and And that's probably the closest equivalent.
1:45:21
Speaker 1: And Armando, that's a great shout. I think that as
1:45:25
Speaker 1: a contemporary, like as someone who grew up in that time,
1:45:30
Speaker 1: you probably had different feelings. You had probably had polarized feelings.
1:45:33
Speaker 1: And even if you changed your opinion and came around
1:45:35
Speaker 1: on Muhammad Ali, you didn't from the start have a
1:45:38
Speaker 1: Muhammad Ali poster on your wall and wear Muhammad Ali Jersey,
1:45:42
Speaker 1: regardless of whatever part of America you came from or
1:45:45
Speaker 1: your walk of life or whatever. Derek on the text
1:45:49
Speaker 1: line says, unfortunately it's probably Taylor Swift.
1:45:52
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:45:52
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift is most likely the most universally beloved American
1:45:57
Speaker 1: right now. But, and we've had, we've had these in
1:46:00
Speaker 1: pop culture. Like this is a unique thing. And so
1:46:03
Speaker 1: we're talking about sports. Yeah. Like pop culture.
1:46:06
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:46:06
Speaker 1: You have those. Um, it's even rare in pop culture.
1:46:10
Speaker 1: Like Taylor Swift now is so popular that people have
1:46:13
Speaker 1: turned against Taylor Swift because of her popularity. And because
1:46:17
Speaker 1: they're like, I don't want to see her on my
1:46:19
Speaker 1: football games anymore. Relax. Fatigue.
1:46:21
Speaker 4: Right.
1:46:22
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift is still, she's our pop culture queen. Anyway,
1:46:26
Speaker 1: we're way over time here. Um, our intermountain snowmobile expo
1:46:30
Speaker 1: is coming Friday and Saturday at the Western sports park
1:46:33
Speaker 1: up in Farmington. Spence Checkets is going to give away
1:46:36
Speaker 1: tickets on the drive this week. So if you're into
1:46:39
Speaker 1: the Intermountain Snowmobile Expo, make sure you're listening to the
1:46:42
Speaker 1: drive from 2 to 6. We'll double up here. Adrian
1:46:46
Speaker 1: Denny joins us to talk about a red-hot Utah Mammoth
1:46:49
Speaker 1: team and Jack McBain punching people in the forehead. It's
1:46:54
Speaker 1: the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
1:47:04
Speaker 4: You're listening to The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
1:47:07
Speaker 4: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
1:47:18
Speaker 1: One o'clock on a Wednesday. That means it's time to
1:47:20
Speaker 1: go between the pipes with Adrian Denny, our Utah Mammoth Insider.
1:47:24
Speaker 1: Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. Aladdin Industries make this conversation possible.
1:47:29
Speaker 1: What a game last night for the Utah Mammoth on
1:47:32
Speaker 1: the road in New Jersey. 5-3 victory. Had a little
1:47:36
Speaker 1: bit of everything in it. Lawson Kraus gets on the board.
1:47:40
Speaker 1: Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Vincent Trocek, Mackenzie Wieger netting the
1:47:46
Speaker 1: goals for the Utah Mammoth. Lots to talk about from
1:47:52
Speaker 1: this one and from the start of the season. The
1:47:55
Speaker 1: Mammoth are 3-1, 2-1 on the road so far. Adrian Diddy, welcome.
1:48:01
Speaker 1: How are you? Hey, OC.
1:48:02
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me in. All great stuff to talk about.
1:48:04
Speaker 6: Don't have one thing to nitpick, honestly. Don't have one thing.
1:48:08
Speaker 6: It's all great with the Mammoth right now. So it's
1:48:12
Speaker 6: been fun and goals are going in and the power
1:48:15
Speaker 6: plays looking like a thing of art you mentioned. a
1:48:20
Speaker 6: little bit of everything. Jack McBain dropping the gloves again.
1:48:23
Speaker 6: They've already fought three times as a team laying down
1:48:27
Speaker 6: the second most hits in the NHL team lays down
1:48:31
Speaker 6: the most. It's Boston going to play them tomorrow as
1:48:35
Speaker 6: the trip continues. So they're in a good spot on
1:48:37
Speaker 6: this road trip.
1:48:39
Speaker 1: You split.
1:48:40
Speaker 6: In Boston and Buffalo, you come home four and two.
1:48:43
Speaker 6: And after starting the year with five of your first
1:48:45
Speaker 6: six on the road, that'd be a pretty good thing.
1:48:48
Speaker 1: Really, really cool to watch last night, especially that Jack
1:48:51
Speaker 1: McBain situation you're talking about. One of the more emphatic
1:48:56
Speaker 1: finishes to a hockey fight so far in the young season,
1:48:59
Speaker 1: dominant performance by McBain and dropping the gloves. And we
1:49:04
Speaker 1: were speculating on this a little bit earlier, like When
1:49:07
Speaker 1: you have that physical presence, and it's something that Bear
1:49:11
Speaker 1: Turney and Bill Armstrong have talked about trying to make
1:49:15
Speaker 1: that physicality more a part of the team identity, they're
1:49:17
Speaker 1: not talking about fighting. But what they're talking about is
1:49:21
Speaker 1: a sort of identity that pervades through the roster. And
1:49:26
Speaker 1: when you have somebody who then manifests it and represents
1:49:31
Speaker 1: that in the most extreme manner and does so effectively,
1:49:34
Speaker 1: it's a nice little reminder for all of us that
1:49:36
Speaker 1: this team... with some increased size, might actually be that
1:49:42
Speaker 1: sooner than later.
1:49:44
Speaker 6: It's a well-rounded group, right? You've got your top six forwards,
1:49:49
Speaker 6: your Gunthers, your Cooleys, your Schmaltzes, your Kellers, Trojaks, Lees.
1:49:55
Speaker 1: Piling up points.
1:49:56
Speaker 6: But then you've got a shutdown line with a guy
1:49:58
Speaker 6: like Jack McBain, Lawson Kraus, and Barrett Hayton, who you
1:50:03
Speaker 6: can put out there to do... exactly that they're one
1:50:08
Speaker 6: of a handful of forward lines in the nhl right
1:50:11
Speaker 6: now through the first week hasn't allowed a goal at
1:50:15
Speaker 6: five on five and you know lawson kraus is good
1:50:19
Speaker 6: for 20 goals a season four times in the last
1:50:22
Speaker 6: five years hayton's usually teetering around that number mcbain's been
1:50:27
Speaker 6: in double figures two of the last three years so
1:50:30
Speaker 6: they'll be able to pop some big goals into just
1:50:33
Speaker 6: by kind of crashing and bruising and banging. And when
1:50:39
Speaker 6: they don't score, they're not going to give up anything
1:50:42
Speaker 6: when they're on the ice. And a lot of the
1:50:45
Speaker 6: times they'll, they'll create momentum with a good offensive shift
1:50:49
Speaker 6: that establishes puck possession. Then you can roll out your,
1:50:53
Speaker 6: your stars and they can take advantage of it.
1:50:57
Speaker 1: First goal of the game was like two minutes in
1:51:00
Speaker 1: on the power play. And a nifty pass from Sergeyev,
1:51:04
Speaker 1: who's right up there at the top of the zone.
1:51:07
Speaker 1: Looks like, you know, kind of fakes a shot, gets
1:51:09
Speaker 1: the puck back to Keller. And Keller puts it in
1:51:12
Speaker 1: the back of the net. And look, you're not going
1:51:14
Speaker 1: to have a power play opportunity two minutes into most games.
1:51:19
Speaker 1: But the fact that there's no, like, waiting, there's no
1:51:22
Speaker 1: grace period, there's no run-up, that as soon as the
1:51:26
Speaker 1: advantage comes for this Utah Mammoth team, They take advantage
1:51:29
Speaker 1: of it, I think, is a testament to the work
1:51:31
Speaker 1: they put in on special teams.
1:51:33
Speaker 6: And the first two minutes of a game, the first
1:51:35
Speaker 6: two minutes of a period, power play percentages are terrible
1:51:40
Speaker 6: because you're just kind of coming out and you're getting settled.
1:51:44
Speaker 6: And for New Jersey, who just lost their last game
1:51:47
Speaker 6: 6-0 to the Islanders on Saturday night, the last thing
1:51:52
Speaker 6: that they wanted to do was take a penalty and
1:51:55
Speaker 6: 10 seconds into the game when Timo Meier high-sticked Jack
1:51:59
Speaker 6: McBain and the Mammoth who entered the day at six
1:52:04
Speaker 6: for nine on the power play went to work and
1:52:06
Speaker 6: made it seven for 10. But the best thing about
1:52:10
Speaker 6: the power play right now, see, is the ability to sustain.
1:52:16
Speaker 6: Last year when the power play was struggling, if they
1:52:19
Speaker 6: didn't win the opening face-off on the power play, they
1:52:22
Speaker 6: were pretty much They couldn't get set up. They couldn't
1:52:26
Speaker 6: get reestablished. And they started this year off really good,
1:52:32
Speaker 6: winning face-offs. But it's not how they've scored all their
1:52:38
Speaker 6: power play goals. They've been able, when the opposing team
1:52:40
Speaker 6: gets a clear, to come back down and get reestablished.
1:52:45
Speaker 3: Whereas.
1:52:46
Speaker 6: you know, last year we're, we're looking at the first
1:52:48
Speaker 6: half of the year, second worst power play in the NHL.
1:52:51
Speaker 6: Probably the, the face off percentage was the biggest thing
1:52:53
Speaker 6: that cost him to the point that head coach Andre
1:52:56
Speaker 6: attorney was bringing Kevin Stenland out. Who's a fourth line
1:53:00
Speaker 6: centerman to just try and win you a face off
1:53:02
Speaker 6: to get your five on four started on the right foot.
1:53:06
Speaker 1: Uh, New Jersey made it a late push and you
1:53:11
Speaker 1: had the insurance goal. Trochek gets on the, gets on
1:53:14
Speaker 1: the board and, uh, A newcomer like him integrating so quickly,
1:53:19
Speaker 1: I guess we shouldn't be surprised because he's an elite player,
1:53:22
Speaker 1: and that's why this Mammoth team brought him in. But again,
1:53:26
Speaker 1: I guess I'm just expressing the fact that I'm impressed
1:53:29
Speaker 1: with the fact that it doesn't take a lot of
1:53:32
Speaker 1: time for things to start firing on all cylinders, it
1:53:35
Speaker 1: doesn't seem, for this team, at least not this year.
1:53:37
Speaker 1: It hasn't.
1:53:38
Speaker 6: And would you put Trocek out there with Schmaltz and Keller?
1:53:42
Speaker 6: I'd say give them five or ten games to get
1:53:46
Speaker 6: settled because Schmaltz and Keller have been playing together for years,
1:53:50
Speaker 6: and they're just kind of two different guys to play with.
1:53:53
Speaker 6: So you think, okay, give them a little bit of
1:53:55
Speaker 6: time to get settled. And yesterday Clayton Keller's talking about
1:53:59
Speaker 6: that line. He's like, yeah, just give us some more time.
1:54:01
Speaker 6: And we're like, it looks pretty good to us. And
1:54:05
Speaker 6: that insurance goal that Trochek scored was in a one-goal game,
1:54:12
Speaker 6: But it all came because Clayton Keller comes up from behind,
1:54:16
Speaker 6: picks the guy's pocket when he's trying to skate it
1:54:18
Speaker 6: out of the Utah offense event, and then Schmaltz streaks in,
1:54:21
Speaker 6: scoops it up, and then all of a sudden the
1:54:23
Speaker 6: Mammoth are off and running. So as many points as
1:54:26
Speaker 6: Schmaltz and Keller put up, defensively they are elite. Nick
1:54:31
Speaker 6: Schmaltz was in the top 10 of the NHL in
1:54:35
Speaker 6: takeaways and strips last year, but he's just tenacious. And
1:54:39
Speaker 6: for him to be starting off this eight-year contract and
1:54:43
Speaker 6: having taken his game to another level after a career
1:54:45
Speaker 6: year last year where he got 33, it's just really,
1:54:48
Speaker 6: really impressive when, when the team around him has gotten
1:54:51
Speaker 6: better and he's able to take his game and elevate
1:54:54
Speaker 6: it to, to an even more elite level, both defensively, but,
1:54:59
Speaker 6: but putting the puck in the net, you remember during
1:55:01
Speaker 6: the inaugural season, he didn't get his first goal until
1:55:04
Speaker 6: after Thanksgiving. And it was, it was an ongoing saga
1:55:07
Speaker 6: and we're like, this guy scores 20 plus goals every year.
1:55:10
Speaker 6: And it just, just didn't come for him. But, You
1:55:13
Speaker 6: see what happens when he gets hot, and Nick Schmaltz
1:55:15
Speaker 6: is a guy that when he gets on a streak,
1:55:17
Speaker 6: it's good for Utah.
1:55:19
Speaker 1: He is currently the goals leader in the NHL, so
1:55:22
Speaker 1: we're just going to assume that that continues all the
1:55:24
Speaker 1: way through 82 games, right? Yeah, it's always funny.
1:55:28
Speaker 6: The first couple weeks of the season, the guys you
1:55:31
Speaker 6: see leading the NHL in goals, Paul Cotter, who is
1:55:37
Speaker 6: with Vancouver, who's a guy that's teetered from the minor
1:55:41
Speaker 6: leagues to the NHL for the last couple of years is,
1:55:44
Speaker 6: is up there too. But Schmaltz is, I mean, it's
1:55:47
Speaker 6: legit 30, 33 goals last year, a career high 10 above,
1:55:53
Speaker 6: you know, is, is career average. So, you know, when,
1:55:57
Speaker 6: when the power play is going as it is, the
1:56:01
Speaker 6: power play for the mammoth is off to the best
1:56:03
Speaker 6: start through four games for any team in NHL history.
1:56:07
Speaker 6: Since the league started tracking power plays in 1977, So
1:56:12
Speaker 6: that's almost 50 years, eight for 13, 61%, but Schmaltz is,
1:56:17
Speaker 6: is always out there on the power play. And it's
1:56:19
Speaker 6: a good spot for a goal score to be in. And,
1:56:22
Speaker 6: you know, you got that first power play unit and barrel,
1:56:25
Speaker 6: even leave them out there for full two minutes. You
1:56:27
Speaker 6: got Anders Lee and Vinnie Trocek and Barrett Hayton, Lawson Krauss,
1:56:32
Speaker 6: Mike Carconi, and your, your second one, he just leaves out,
1:56:36
Speaker 6: leaves out Sergeyev, Schmaltz, Keller, Cooley, and Gunther for, for
1:56:41
Speaker 6: the whole time. And they've been able to eventually score.
1:56:45
Speaker 1: Speaker 0 1, we're between the pipes with Adrian Denny
1:56:48
Speaker 1: brought to you by Valley plumbing, heating, and cooling and
1:56:51
Speaker 1: Aladdin industries talking Utah mammoth hockey.
1:56:53
Speaker 2: I guess this is a negative finally to talk about
1:56:57
Speaker 2: for this team.
1:56:59
Speaker 1: Mikhail Sergeyev got point in the head with a puck
1:57:03
Speaker 1: friendly fire. I think it came off the stick of
1:57:05
Speaker 1: McKenzie Weger and just hit him in the back of
1:57:07
Speaker 1: the head. He did not return to the game, which
1:57:10
Speaker 1: is never great. Any updates? What do we know? No updates.
1:57:15
Speaker 6: Team's not practicing today in Boston. They'll, they'll have a
1:57:19
Speaker 6: full morning skate tomorrow ahead of the game.
1:57:23
Speaker 1: Against the Bruins.
1:57:23
Speaker 6: And, and that is typically when you'll get an injury
1:57:28
Speaker 6: update is right before the team hits the ice for,
1:57:31
Speaker 6: for morning skate right before their, their next game.
1:57:36
Speaker 1: Gosh, like it's unfortunate.
1:57:40
Speaker 6: He was, playing a great game. He had three points,
1:57:44
Speaker 6: and he's been the minutes leader for Utah each of
1:57:47
Speaker 6: the last two seasons in every situation. He was in
1:57:52
Speaker 6: the top six in minutes in 24-25, and then as
1:57:54
Speaker 6: the Mammoth got deeper last year, they didn't have to
1:57:57
Speaker 6: use him as much. But whether he's playing 22 minutes
1:58:02
Speaker 6: or 28 minutes, it's still a big chunk of minutes
1:58:06
Speaker 6: out there, He's tied for third in the NHL in
1:58:09
Speaker 6: scoring right now with Keller and Schmaltz and Gunther with
1:58:13
Speaker 6: six points in four games.
1:58:19
Speaker 1: Who has surprised you most on the roster so far?
1:58:21
Speaker 1: Who's been the revelation?
1:58:25
Speaker 6: Mackenzie Wieger has come out and really done you know, what,
1:58:31
Speaker 6: what the mammoth traded for, like top five and block shots,
1:58:36
Speaker 6: top five and hits every year. And he's, he's out
1:58:42
Speaker 6: there last night, blocks, six shots, laid down two hits
1:58:49
Speaker 6: Sunday in, um, New York against the Rangers. Just, he
1:58:53
Speaker 6: had eight shot attempts, um, six hits, five block shots.
1:59:00
Speaker 6: first player since 2018 to have, you know, numbers like
1:59:05
Speaker 6: that in terms of hits, block shots, shot attempts.
1:59:08
Speaker 1: He scored his first goal last night.
1:59:12
Speaker 6: So that's, that's what you get from him. He's, he's
1:59:15
Speaker 6: a bruiser with some skill and, you know, after the
1:59:20
Speaker 6: trade last year, he went from the slowest team in
1:59:23
Speaker 6: Calgary to the fastest team in Utah. And, you know,
1:59:27
Speaker 6: that being, the hockey aspect of it and trying to
1:59:31
Speaker 6: get settled, trying to, you know, up, uproot your life and,
1:59:36
Speaker 6: and come in. So he expected, uh, to have this
1:59:41
Speaker 6: start in the mammoth or really happy that, uh, that
1:59:44
Speaker 6: he has, cause he's on your four of an eight
1:59:47
Speaker 6: year contract.
1:59:47
Speaker 1: He's here long-term, uh.
1:59:49
Speaker 6: Same, same contract that, that circuit chefs on, but to
1:59:53
Speaker 6: have a big defenseman who, who, just does all of
1:59:57
Speaker 6: those things and can play the heavy minutes we're talking
2:00:00
Speaker 6: about with, with Sergeyev.
2:00:02
Speaker 1: That'd be one.
2:00:03
Speaker 6: Daniel boot, Dimitri Sibyshev have looked pretty good too. And
2:00:07
Speaker 6: it's just what we talked about last week. It's just
2:00:08
Speaker 6: kind of the confidence. It's all they needed. It was just, they've,
2:00:12
Speaker 6: they've got, they've got everything. It's just, you know, the,
2:00:15
Speaker 6: the confidence to, to do it and not think.
2:00:20
Speaker 1: We're going to have the same conversation about the mammoth
2:00:22
Speaker 1: here that we're, we've had, for several weeks about the Utes.
2:00:26
Speaker 1: Of course, an NHL season kind of progresses faster. You
2:00:30
Speaker 1: learn things faster because the activity. You get more games
2:00:34
Speaker 1: in a shorter span of time. Right now, they've looked
2:00:38
Speaker 1: really good. The Mammoths have looked really good against the Blackhawks,
2:00:42
Speaker 1: the Blue Jackets, and the Devils. They lost against the Rangers.
2:00:46
Speaker 1: There were some good things in that game. Some things
2:00:48
Speaker 1: that obviously they would like to change and we don't
2:00:50
Speaker 1: expect to see constant problem. But Based on the competition,
2:00:55
Speaker 1: you have to adjust expectations and you have to say,
2:00:58
Speaker 1: all right, we don't know this yet because we've only
2:01:01
Speaker 1: seen it against these teams. And again, two weeks from now,
2:01:04
Speaker 1: we probably don't have to have the conversation the same way,
2:01:07
Speaker 1: although there's always going to be an element of that.
2:01:09
Speaker 1: But in the very, very early goings, how quality are
2:01:14
Speaker 1: these wins against teams like the Blackhawks who you shut
2:01:16
Speaker 1: out in the home opener? Against the Devils, who have
2:01:19
Speaker 1: kind of the same expectations that you do. They want
2:01:22
Speaker 1: to be a playoff team. They want a playoff series.
2:01:25
Speaker 1: They're plus 3,000 to win the Stanley Cup, just like
2:01:28
Speaker 1: you are. When you're judging the competition and the performance
2:01:31
Speaker 1: against the competition, how do you net out? Chicago has
2:01:36
Speaker 1: not looked good. They're 1-3.
2:01:37
Speaker 6: They won their first game last night. Columbus beat Buffalo,
2:01:42
Speaker 6: who is the Atlantic Division champion from last year that
2:01:44
Speaker 6: came out of nowhere, 6-3 in their first game. They've
2:01:46
Speaker 6: played one other game. It was against Utah. They lost 4-1.
2:01:48
Speaker 6: Mammoth controlled that whole thing. The Rangers look good, man. Like,
2:01:54
Speaker 6: Igor Shosturkin, healthy, in goal. Like, they can win every
2:01:59
Speaker 6: game when he's in. They beat the Islanders last night.
2:02:02
Speaker 6: They're 4-1. Utah could have won that game on Sunday
2:02:07
Speaker 6: with all the imperfections, and we've been like, Yeah, pretty
2:02:11
Speaker 6: good game. And then New Jersey, not sure what to
2:02:14
Speaker 6: really expect from them. I think the way that they've
2:02:17
Speaker 6: controlled New Jersey, Columbus, and Chicago has been a pretty
2:02:20
Speaker 6: good exclamation point for what they've come out and accomplished
2:02:28
Speaker 6: so far this year. Power play is going to come
2:02:30
Speaker 6: back down to earth, right? Eight for 13. That's something
2:02:33
Speaker 6: we know will come back down. Teams make adjustments.
2:02:39
Speaker 1: Teams.
2:02:40
Speaker 6: focus, teams dial in, they'll figure stuff out, and then
2:02:43
Speaker 6: Utah has to adjust.
2:02:44
Speaker 1: Not to interrupt, but even coming back down to earth,
2:02:47
Speaker 1: what we expect, right? You want it to be better
2:02:49
Speaker 1: than it was, so what is the percentage, like a
2:02:52
Speaker 1: realistic target percentage that this team is preaching within the
2:02:55
Speaker 1: dressing room? I think they can.
2:02:57
Speaker 6: Have a 25% power play, which would be top eight
2:03:01
Speaker 6: in the NHL, top quarter of the league.
2:03:06
Speaker 2: There's talent out there.
2:03:08
Speaker 1: That that can score.
2:03:10
Speaker 6: So they, they've re-signed assistant coach, Blaine Forsyth, who oversees
2:03:15
Speaker 6: the power play to a multi-year contract. The same day
2:03:18
Speaker 6: they did head coach Andre tourney in, in June and
2:03:21
Speaker 6: power play was second best in the NHL from February
2:03:24
Speaker 6: 1st on last year. So they definitely saw some, some
2:03:29
Speaker 6: stuff that made them feel pretty good about the power
2:03:33
Speaker 6: play coming into this year and, and just off to
2:03:37
Speaker 6: an amazing start. And so, what were they two for
2:03:42
Speaker 6: four on the power play last night? I think that
2:03:46
Speaker 6: the middle one that they didn't score and might've been
2:03:48
Speaker 6: their best power play of the night. So, so that's
2:03:51
Speaker 6: looking good. That's going to come back down to earth,
2:03:53
Speaker 6: just percentages and teams adjust. And we saw it last
2:03:57
Speaker 6: year after you had that hot October, but the way
2:03:59
Speaker 6: that Utah is playing right now with the physicality and,
2:04:06
Speaker 6: you know, the net front presence is, They've scored almost
2:04:09
Speaker 6: 60% of their goals from right in front of the
2:04:11
Speaker 6: net this year.
2:04:12
Speaker 1: Last year it was 40%. That's a pretty big jump.
2:04:16
Speaker 6: So the identity that they're playing with right now, it's
2:04:20
Speaker 6: not something you can game plan against. You just have
2:04:23
Speaker 6: to go out and deal with it. So consistency, big thing.
2:04:29
Speaker 6: But when Utah won seven straight last year in October
2:04:33
Speaker 6: and they're running and gunning with Gunther, Paterka, and Cooley,
2:04:36
Speaker 6: Teams are watching that. They're like, okay, how do we
2:04:38
Speaker 6: slow that down? They do it. It's an ongoing chess
2:04:43
Speaker 6: match all season in the NHL.
2:04:47
Speaker 1: Once again, the Mammoth are mentioned in potential trade rumors
2:04:52
Speaker 1: with Simonson and these other players that are out there.
2:04:57
Speaker 1: Any sort of insight on any of that front?
2:05:00
Speaker 6: No, other than Bill's going to pick up the phone
2:05:03
Speaker 6: and call, and if that's If that's something that gets
2:05:07
Speaker 6: leaked that they called, he's going to call on everybody.
2:05:12
Speaker 6: It's his job to make the team better and go
2:05:17
Speaker 6: down every avenue. As I've said, when you've got cap
2:05:23
Speaker 6: space like Utah has, when you have the prospect system
2:05:26
Speaker 6: that Utah has, when you've got ownership who's come out
2:05:31
Speaker 6: and made a statement in every area that we want
2:05:34
Speaker 6: to win Stanley cups around here. Like you're going to be,
2:05:37
Speaker 6: you're going to be mentioned and Bill's Bill's tactful and
2:05:41
Speaker 6: he's aggressive. And he also knows when to say, okay, thanks.
2:05:47
Speaker 6: Have a nice day. If, if, if it's not what
2:05:51
Speaker 6: he wants to part ways.
2:05:53
Speaker 1: With ESPN, put out a list that mean very little
2:05:58
Speaker 1: next to nothing, but they put out their top 100
2:06:00
Speaker 1: NHL players for Utah mammoth on it. Keller, the highest
2:06:04
Speaker 1: ranked at 39. Gunther at 58. Cooley at 60. And
2:06:11
Speaker 1: Sergachev down at, I think, 88 is where I saw him. Yeah,
2:06:15
Speaker 1: 88 for Mikhail Sergachev. Who is most likely to play
2:06:19
Speaker 1: themselves into that top 100 conversation over the course of
2:06:22
Speaker 1: this season?
2:06:24
Speaker 2: That's not there now. That's not there now.
2:06:28
Speaker 1: Top 100.
2:06:28
Speaker 3: Um....
2:06:33
Speaker 6: I look at this roster and I just, I see,
2:06:35
Speaker 6: I see a lot of meat potatoes too. You got
2:06:39
Speaker 6: your stars that, that were listed right there.
2:06:45
Speaker 1: Um, you said Keller, you said Gunther Cooley circuit or
2:06:49
Speaker 1: Gunther Cooley circuit chip.
2:06:51
Speaker 6: What about Schmaltz? How's Schmaltz not on the list? Isn't
2:06:53
Speaker 6: that implied? I thought that was going to be your answer.
2:06:56
Speaker 6: Maybe I thought you said it. And then I'm like,
2:06:58
Speaker 6: he didn't say it.
2:06:59
Speaker 4: Yeah.
2:06:59
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:06:59
Speaker 1: Schmaltz is not on there, man. I've got, that's a problem.
2:07:03
Speaker 1: I've scrolled it a couple of times now. Schmaltz is
2:07:05
Speaker 1: not on there. 39 for Keller. He was 40 last year.
2:07:09
Speaker 1: Gunther was not ranked last year. Cooley was 97 last year.
2:07:14
Speaker 1: He's 60 this year. And Sergeyev last on last year's
2:07:20
Speaker 1: list was 96. And now he's 88.
2:07:24
Speaker 6: Because Schmaltz has to be there outside of that. I mean,
2:07:31
Speaker 6: Trocek and Lee are probably 100 to 150. They're going
2:07:38
Speaker 6: to have the consistent seasons.
2:07:40
Speaker 1: They always do.
2:07:41
Speaker 6: And you look, you look at the D like Uyghur
2:07:45
Speaker 6: Marino Schmidt, like they, they, they bring it like John Marino,
2:07:51
Speaker 6: a plus 42 second best in the NHL, but popping
2:07:54
Speaker 6: into that 100, Schmaltz is the one guy that should
2:07:59
Speaker 6: be there that isn't. But beyond that, I think he
2:08:02
Speaker 6: got a lot of 100s to 200s. Number one on
2:08:05
Speaker 6: the list, you could guess.
2:08:08
Speaker 1: McDavid? Connor McDavid. Number two? Nathan McKinnon? Yes. Number three?
2:08:14
Speaker 1: Kael McCarr? They've got Nikita Kucherov. McCarr is five on
2:08:19
Speaker 1: the list. So Kucherov three, Makar five. Who do you
2:08:23
Speaker 1: think they have at number four on the list? Quinn Hughes.
2:08:26
Speaker 1: Macklin Celebrini. Macklin Celebrini. Okay. Quinn Hughes is nine. They've got,
2:08:32
Speaker 1: it goes.
2:08:32
Speaker 2: Wow.
2:08:33
Speaker 1: That's low. Makar, Dreisaitl, Zach Wierenski, David Pasternak, Quinn Hughes,
2:08:41
Speaker 1: Kirill Kaprizov. Austin Matthews at 11. Number 100. 100. Evgeny
2:08:50
Speaker 1: Malkin at age 40. All right. For all of us,
2:08:55
Speaker 1: for all of us old guys out there, this is
2:08:57
Speaker 1: a fun list. I hadn't seen this. This is all
2:09:00
Speaker 1: new to me. Mackenzie Weger gets honorable mention. So just
2:09:04
Speaker 1: outside of the top 100, along with guys like Brad Marchand,
2:09:10
Speaker 1: what was the, he, he left, wasn't able to put
2:09:13
Speaker 1: any weight on his leg. Do we know anything about
2:09:16
Speaker 1: that injury?
2:09:17
Speaker 6: No, other than the fact that it's the last thing
2:09:20
Speaker 6: Florida needs because their captain Alexander Barkoff is hurt again.
2:09:24
Speaker 6: He got hurt two games earlier in San Jose and
2:09:29
Speaker 6: it's not as bad as, um, that was initially feared.
2:09:35
Speaker 1: Um, so I, I think it's, uh, six to eight
2:09:38
Speaker 1: weeks ish.
2:09:39
Speaker 6: On, uh, on Barkoff, but that, that Martian thing was
2:09:45
Speaker 6: some of the puts fear India too. And, Gosh, it's
2:09:48
Speaker 6: the exact same thing that happened last year with the
2:09:51
Speaker 6: Florida Panthers.
2:09:55
Speaker 1: Next up, as you already mentioned, Boston. How does that
2:09:58
Speaker 1: game go?
2:09:59
Speaker 6: Never won in Boston before. Been shut out. Scored one goal.
2:10:03
Speaker 6: Played in December last year. Last time the Mammoths saw
2:10:06
Speaker 6: the Bruins was December. Both teams were kind of still
2:10:09
Speaker 6: figuring themselves out, teetering in terms of playoffs.
2:10:13
Speaker 1: Both finished strong.
2:10:15
Speaker 6: Boston finished as the First wildcard in the East mammoth
2:10:21
Speaker 6: finishes first wildcard in the West for Boston. They're the
2:10:24
Speaker 6: only team that's beaten the Rangers so far. Uh, they
2:10:28
Speaker 6: lost a close game to Minnesota. Who's who's always good. Um,
2:10:32
Speaker 6: their last game coming back from a mini two game trip,
2:10:35
Speaker 6: they lost four, one to Ottawa and it, uh, it
2:10:38
Speaker 6: was ugly.
2:10:38
Speaker 1: It wasn't good.
2:10:39
Speaker 6: And for me, I thought, oh, it's probably a six, one, seven,
2:10:42
Speaker 6: one game looking at the, the reaction and seeing what
2:10:46
Speaker 6: the score was. was early, but they're a big, heavy team.
2:10:52
Speaker 6: They are tops in the league in hits. Utah, the
2:10:56
Speaker 6: surprise second, but Mammoth have not scored a lot of
2:11:02
Speaker 6: goals against Boston. Last year at home, beat them 3-2
2:11:06
Speaker 6: in overtime. The year before that, in the inaugural season,
2:11:09
Speaker 6: beat them 2-1 in overtime in a game that was
2:11:11
Speaker 6: scoreless going into the third period. The games against Boston
2:11:16
Speaker 6: have been really low scoring and they're, they're a big
2:11:21
Speaker 6: heavy team. And, and you could say when, when you
2:11:23
Speaker 6: look at Utah coming into the season, you could say Boston,
2:11:27
Speaker 6: that might be one of the teams they struggle with.
2:11:29
Speaker 6: But as we talk about how this season started with,
2:11:33
Speaker 6: you know, the, the team identity as a whole, the,
2:11:36
Speaker 6: the way that they've had success, it'll be, it'll be
2:11:39
Speaker 6: fun to see, as you talked about earlier, like, what
2:11:41
Speaker 6: do we know about Columbus, the devils, Chicago Blackhawks, You
2:11:47
Speaker 6: know what you're going to get from Boston, regardless of
2:11:50
Speaker 6: how it shakes out.
2:11:53
Speaker 1: Last thing before I let you go, we were talking
2:11:56
Speaker 1: in the previous segment about Argentina bidding farewell to Leo Messi,
2:12:01
Speaker 1: at least on the international stage. It was a great
2:12:03
Speaker 1: send-off in a friendly game against Benin. He assisted two goals.
2:12:07
Speaker 1: He scored the final goal on a penalty. You know,
2:12:11
Speaker 1: just the pageantry of it. His statement was beautiful. And
2:12:17
Speaker 1: I was somewhat lamenting the fact that we don't have
2:12:20
Speaker 1: that in American sports. There's not like a deity of
2:12:25
Speaker 1: American sport, in my opinion, at least. What is the
2:12:29
Speaker 1: closest equivalent we have to Leo Messi in the sports
2:12:33
Speaker 1: world as Americans?
2:12:38
Speaker 6: I'm going straight to hockey. I don't want to say
2:12:43
Speaker 6: a New York Yankee, but guys like him and and.
2:12:49
Speaker 1: LeBron, right?
2:12:50
Speaker 6: Those are guys that the, or Aaron judge and LeBron,
2:12:54
Speaker 6: like those are two guys you look at. Tom Brady's
2:13:00
Speaker 6: retired a couple of couple of years ago.
2:13:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:13:02
Speaker 1: Like what do you think? Well, because, because it's unique, right?
2:13:07
Speaker 1: Soccer has the thing where like, doesn't, doesn't matter what
2:13:11
Speaker 1: international club you play for or what professional club you
2:13:14
Speaker 1: play for. every four years you get to put on
2:13:16
Speaker 1: the shirt and you get to like our football players
2:13:20
Speaker 1: don't get to participate in the Olympics. At least not yet.
2:13:24
Speaker 1: Flag football's coming, right? Our basketball players do, but it's not,
2:13:30
Speaker 1: I don't know. It doesn't make you love LeBron James.
2:13:34
Speaker 1: If you're an anti Laker guy or you're an anti, uh,
2:13:38
Speaker 1: 76 or guy or an anti Miami heat guy. You
2:13:41
Speaker 1: don't like, oh, now I love LeBron James because of
2:13:43
Speaker 1: wind because he won us a gold medal. Who's the hero. Yeah.
2:13:47
Speaker 1: We came up, got a good couple of texts. Muhammad
2:13:50
Speaker 1: Ali turned into that. Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, tiger woods
2:13:55
Speaker 1: was maybe that pre controversy where everyone kind of had
2:13:59
Speaker 1: love for tiger, but it's a unique thing. And in hockey,
2:14:03
Speaker 1: I think Canada has it. I don't think the U
2:14:07
Speaker 1: S does. Right. Like, yeah.
2:14:09
Speaker 2: Um, I don't think so. I don't think so. Um,
2:14:12
Speaker 2: I'm so worldly.
2:14:13
Speaker 6: I had no idea what you were getting after there,
2:14:17
Speaker 6: but I don't think so.
2:14:20
Speaker 1: Like, does everyone in Canada still love Wayne Gretzky? I
2:14:24
Speaker 1: think so. Even though he left and went to LA. Yeah. I, I,
2:14:28
Speaker 1: I think so. There's always stuff.
2:14:30
Speaker 5: Yeah.
2:14:31
Speaker 2: You know, there's some political stuff that, You know, that's the.
2:14:35
Speaker 1: Other thing now that everyone has social media and they
2:14:37
Speaker 1: can tell, they can tell everyone what they really think
2:14:40
Speaker 1: it's harder for athletes to, and that's, I mean, part
2:14:42
Speaker 1: of the reason probably why Leo Messi is so beloved,
2:14:45
Speaker 1: not only in Argentina, but internationally, because you actually don't
2:14:48
Speaker 1: know anything about him.
2:14:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:14:50
Speaker 1: Like all you get is, is he a good soccer player?
2:14:54
Speaker 1: And as far as we could tell, is he nice
2:14:56
Speaker 1: to people?
2:14:57
Speaker 6: Yeah.
2:14:57
Speaker 1: And the answer to those seems like, yes. So everyone
2:15:00
Speaker 1: loves Leo anyway. Always great catching up with you, sir. Yeah.
2:15:05
Speaker 1: Between the Pipes with Adrian Denny, brought to you by
2:15:07
Speaker 1: our friends over at Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling and
2:15:09
Speaker 1: Aladdin Industries. Thanks for coming in. Highlight of my week, buddy.
2:15:12
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. Utah Mammoth back in action tomorrow night.
2:15:18
Speaker 1: Utah football in action on Saturday night. You got a
2:15:20
Speaker 1: great weekend of sports coming up, people. Sean O'Connell Show
2:15:25
Speaker 1: on ESPN 700, 92 on FM.
2:15:27
Speaker 2: Don't need no education.
2:15:31
Speaker 4: This is the Sean O'Connell Show. Your home of the
2:15:34
Speaker 4: best inside of your youth. Let's get back to OC
2:15:38
Speaker 4: from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN 792.1 FM. No
2:15:41
Speaker 4: dark sarcasm.
2:15:45
Speaker 1: Talk about this a little bit in the first segment
2:15:49
Speaker 1: of the show today. Depth at the University of Utah.
2:15:54
Speaker 1: I want you to just... Take some time. Look at
2:15:58
Speaker 1: the stats breakdown for this Utah football team. Look at
2:16:01
Speaker 1: the important plays being made by players who are at
2:16:07
Speaker 1: least officially on a depth chart, non-starters. Backup is used
2:16:12
Speaker 1: as a pejorative, but like guys that aren't on the
2:16:16
Speaker 1: field for the first snap, the Cyrus Polo's and Elijah
2:16:20
Speaker 1: Ellis's of the world, guys like Nate Tillman, there's a
2:16:28
Speaker 1: lot of people who are not your obvious day one
2:16:31
Speaker 1: starter day one leader type players who are making important
2:16:34
Speaker 1: plays for the university of Utah. Bird Ficklin is of
2:16:39
Speaker 1: course the headliner in that class because of the position
2:16:41
Speaker 1: that he plays. And if it is dynamicism, dynamism, dynamicism, dynamism,
2:16:48
Speaker 1: dynamism is the right word there as an athlete. Don't
2:16:51
Speaker 1: use words that you don't know. Um, He obviously headlines
2:16:57
Speaker 1: that class, but there's a lot of guys, and it's
2:17:00
Speaker 1: a testament to the culture at Utah football and the
2:17:04
Speaker 1: maintenance of relationships that Morgan Scali clearly was doing even
2:17:09
Speaker 1: before he became the head coach. Because, yes, you lost
2:17:13
Speaker 1: some really good players. Would this team be better with
2:17:15
Speaker 1: John Henry Daly on it? Yeah, probably so. Do we
2:17:19
Speaker 1: all wish that JJ Buchanan was still in a university
2:17:22
Speaker 1: of Utah football uniform? Yes, of course. But you're fine
2:17:27
Speaker 1: without those players. And that's not a small thing. You're
2:17:31
Speaker 1: also fine without Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu. Now they
2:17:36
Speaker 1: were never going to transfer and go anywhere else. They
2:17:38
Speaker 1: were always going to be here, but when they leave
2:17:42
Speaker 1: for the NFL, It should intuitively hurt you, and it
2:17:46
Speaker 1: hasn't in a meaningful way, not yet at least for
2:17:49
Speaker 1: the universe.
2:17:50
Speaker 3: Of Utah.
2:17:50
Speaker 1: And that is, again, it's just a continuing statement that
2:17:58
Speaker 1: helps us all build confidence that we were right, that
2:18:02
Speaker 1: the administration was right, that The vision for the succession
2:18:07
Speaker 1: plan was correct, whether the timing worked out perfectly or not.
2:18:10
Speaker 1: And guess what, guys? It's looking like it worked out
2:18:12
Speaker 1: pretty perfectly because of what Michigan is suffering through right now. But, man,
2:18:17
Speaker 1: it's just a credit to Morgan Scali and his staff
2:18:20
Speaker 1: that in a time where there's literally an ESPN article
2:18:24
Speaker 1: up today, I want all of you to go read it.
2:18:26
Speaker 1: Assigned reading. You'll have a book report on it tomorrow.
2:18:29
Speaker 1: It's on ESPN, college football's backup quarterback talent drain. And
2:18:35
Speaker 1: it's a bunch of coaches at big-time universities with robust
2:18:38
Speaker 1: NIL budgets complaining about how, no, if you have an
2:18:43
Speaker 1: established starter, you can't have a quality backup. And by
2:18:47
Speaker 1: the way, that is true about other positions as well
2:18:50
Speaker 1: as the coaches are saying in the article. They talked
2:18:53
Speaker 1: to Mike Elko and he says, I don't think anybody
2:18:55
Speaker 1: anywhere is recruiting depth out of the portal. I don't
2:18:57
Speaker 1: think there are SEC level players in the country that
2:19:00
Speaker 1: are trying to go places where you have an established starter.
2:19:03
Speaker 1: I don't think that's a real thing. This is a
2:19:05
Speaker 1: coach who's compensated in the millions and millions of dollars
2:19:09
Speaker 1: just shrugging the shoulders and saying, I don't think you
2:19:12
Speaker 1: can do this. I don't think you can do this
2:19:15
Speaker 1: thing that Utah is doing right now. And yet, it's hard.
2:19:19
Speaker 1: You're not bringing someone in out of the portal to
2:19:23
Speaker 1: back up Devin Dampier. So I'm not disputing that. But
2:19:27
Speaker 1: what you are doing is you are keeping Bird Ficklin,
2:19:29
Speaker 1: who's very clearly a starting caliber talent. You are keeping
2:19:33
Speaker 1: him out of the portal. Which, guess what, guys? It's
2:19:35
Speaker 1: the same damn thing. Retaining Bird Ficklin is the same
2:19:40
Speaker 1: thing as bringing in a starting caliber player out of
2:19:42
Speaker 1: the portal. Because you have two starting caliber quarterbacks. You
2:19:46
Speaker 1: have four starting caliber linebackers. You have four starting caliber safeties.
2:19:53
Speaker 1: Wide receiver is always a position where you should have
2:19:56
Speaker 1: five or six guys that can contribute, but that's not
2:19:59
Speaker 1: been a reality at Utah every year. Defensive tackle, kind
2:20:03
Speaker 1: of the same thing. You're always going to rotate those guys.
2:20:06
Speaker 1: Defensive end. Look, we thought that the position... was a
2:20:12
Speaker 1: strength potentially not from a production standpoint, from, but from
2:20:16
Speaker 1: a talent standpoint, I think that's, what's sort of bearing
2:20:19
Speaker 1: it's bearing its fruit right now. Not a ton of
2:20:22
Speaker 1: sack production, some hurries and hits certainly. And they're playing
2:20:27
Speaker 1: well against the run, which you probably need to care
2:20:29
Speaker 1: about more because that was one thing we didn't talk
2:20:34
Speaker 1: about enough last year when when Utah started to really,
2:20:38
Speaker 1: really break down against the run, sometimes that was poor
2:20:41
Speaker 1: defensive end play. And these guys, Lance holds claw and
2:20:45
Speaker 1: Ethan day cash, Dylan, they've been really good against the
2:20:48
Speaker 1: run this year. So I'm okay. If I have to
2:20:52
Speaker 1: choose one or the other, you could be a great
2:20:54
Speaker 1: pass rusher, but you're a liability against the run or
2:20:56
Speaker 1: you're you can maybe not have a ton of sacks,
2:21:00
Speaker 1: but you're great against the run. I'm taking the great
2:21:02
Speaker 1: against the run thing every single time, because that is
2:21:05
Speaker 1: the identity of Utah football's defense. So go read this
2:21:08
Speaker 1: article about the lack of depth at quarterback. And then
2:21:13
Speaker 1: by extension everywhere else, and then take a look at
2:21:17
Speaker 1: the stat sheet for Utah football and be like, huh? Weird.
2:21:20
Speaker 1: Somehow they maintain depth in a way that is truly
2:21:24
Speaker 1: the counterintuitive and remarkable in today's landscape of college football.
2:21:30
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of games left to play. There's
2:21:32
Speaker 1: a lot of football left to play. It is a
2:21:34
Speaker 1: luxury right now because you haven't had injury attrition at
2:21:38
Speaker 1: some point that will rear its ugly head and it'll
2:21:40
Speaker 1: matter even more. And then maybe we won't get to
2:21:42
Speaker 1: talk about the luxury of depth because now it's not
2:21:45
Speaker 1: a luxury. It's a necessity to have that depth. But
2:21:48
Speaker 1: for now, Utah football is flying in the face of
2:21:51
Speaker 1: trends that are so prevalent in college football that it's
2:21:56
Speaker 1: ESPN has to write about it. That ESPN has to
2:21:59
Speaker 1: go interview coaches like, Hey, Dan Lanning, how did you
2:22:03
Speaker 1: manage to get Dylan Raiola to come here with Dante Moore?
2:22:07
Speaker 1: There there's literally no more than a handful of teams
2:22:12
Speaker 1: in college football right now, where if the starter goes down,
2:22:17
Speaker 1: you still feel good about that team winning football games.
2:22:20
Speaker 1: Utah is one of them. Oregon is I think is
2:22:23
Speaker 1: one of them. And that's somewhat to my surprise. I
2:22:26
Speaker 1: think Texas actually has a pretty quality backup behind arch,
2:22:29
Speaker 1: but there's just not a ton of this. I mean,
2:22:31
Speaker 1: I'm sure Ohio state who's Ohio state's backup quarterback behind
2:22:34
Speaker 1: Julian sand, some five-star freshmen, right? I don't know off
2:22:39
Speaker 1: the top of my head. It was Lincoln keen holds
2:22:41
Speaker 1: who transferred to Louisville and is playing really well for
2:22:46
Speaker 1: Louisville to start the season. So, so they're already, they're
2:22:50
Speaker 1: kind of victims of this too. You're telling me that
2:22:53
Speaker 1: Ohio state, the Ohio state university was not able to
2:22:56
Speaker 1: keep a starting caliber backup, a guy as a backup,
2:23:00
Speaker 1: a guy who was, it was a quarterback battle last
2:23:05
Speaker 1: fall camp and was looked at as it was equal chance,
2:23:10
Speaker 1: not this past August, but the August before August, 2025,
2:23:14
Speaker 1: that it was going to be Julian saying, or Lincoln
2:23:16
Speaker 1: keen holds and saying bested him had an incredible season
2:23:21
Speaker 1: in his first year as a starter. And then he
2:23:24
Speaker 1: was obviously the incumbent. Why would they go away from him?
2:23:27
Speaker 1: Start this year. So keen holds said, okay, I'll go,
2:23:29
Speaker 1: I'll go to transfer portal in Louisville, picked him up
2:23:31
Speaker 1: and he looks really good. So Utah was able to
2:23:34
Speaker 1: do something that Ohio state was not able to do.
2:23:37
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:23:37
Speaker 1: With a first year head coach. That is insane.
2:23:41
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:23:42
Speaker 1: Do you know why Oklahoma is having a hard time
2:23:44
Speaker 1: benching John Mateer? Are you aware of why they got
2:23:47
Speaker 1: behind him? Because the guy that was behind him is
2:23:51
Speaker 1: now the starting quarterback for West Virginia. It's Michael Hawkins jr.
2:23:54
Speaker 1: Who is the best dual threat. Here's the best running
2:23:57
Speaker 1: quarterback in the country right now. Perfect fit for rich rod.
2:24:00
Speaker 1: Like rich rod loves those dual threat guys. It's insane.
2:24:03
Speaker 1: And it's it's a luxury that we need to pay
2:24:09
Speaker 1: more attention to. We need to be more appreciative of
2:24:12
Speaker 1: right now. And even when it becomes a necessity rather
2:24:14
Speaker 1: than a luxury, we should be at that point, more
2:24:18
Speaker 1: appreciative of it than we are today, because you'll still
2:24:22
Speaker 1: be able to win football games. And we saw this
2:24:24
Speaker 1: last year, by the way, in an 11 win season,
2:24:28
Speaker 1: did Devin damn peer start all those wins? No, you
2:24:32
Speaker 1: had a true freshman bird Ficklin who had to start
2:24:34
Speaker 1: one of those things. And then even though with that
2:24:38
Speaker 1: performance and the 10 touchdowns he scored last year, he
2:24:41
Speaker 1: showed the entire college football world that he's the type
2:24:45
Speaker 1: of quarterback. If you don't already have an established starter,
2:24:47
Speaker 1: he's the guy that you want. And yet he stayed.
2:24:55
Speaker 1: Goodness gracious. While questioning whether or not he was going
2:25:00
Speaker 1: to like the offensive coordinator, whether he was going to
2:25:03
Speaker 1: like the quarterback's coach. Morgan Scali. I was not familiar
2:25:11
Speaker 1: with your game. I thought I was the shit. I thought,
2:25:14
Speaker 1: I thought that I thought that I more than anyone
2:25:18
Speaker 1: was familiar with your game.
2:25:19
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:25:21
Speaker 1: I underestimated this man's closing ability with these kids. Maybe
2:25:27
Speaker 1: next time you should estimate him. Oh, see, no, I
2:25:31
Speaker 1: think all of us did other than if you are
2:25:34
Speaker 1: in the program. You work closely with Morgan Scali. You
2:25:38
Speaker 1: work in the athletic department. Maybe you saw this coming.
2:25:42
Speaker 1: You probably did. But I think all of us underestimated
2:25:44
Speaker 1: him in some way, even if you were really optimistic
2:25:48
Speaker 1: about how this was going, which I know you were, OC.
2:25:50
Speaker 1: We just weren't necessarily this optimistic right off the bat.
2:25:55
Speaker 1: And it's paying dividends early. By the way, Ohio State's backup,
2:26:02
Speaker 1: is a sophomore Tavian Sinclair. Who's also a five-star. So it's,
2:26:06
Speaker 1: they lost.
2:26:23
Speaker 1: at a place like Utah.
2:26:26
Speaker 1: And we should be enjoying it because everyone, there are
2:26:30
Speaker 1: sec coaches in this article complaining about depth and that
2:26:33
Speaker 1: we can't have depth, especially at the quarterback position. And
2:26:36
Speaker 1: then we're sitting here in Salt Lake city, just like,
2:26:38
Speaker 1: Oh really? And by the way, ESPN, it's not just
2:26:41
Speaker 1: us pointing that out. Pete Thamel, one of the authors
2:26:44
Speaker 1: on the article, I can't remember the other one off
2:26:46
Speaker 1: the top of my head. They specifically went out of
2:26:50
Speaker 1: their way to mention Utah as an outlier with this.
2:26:52
Speaker 1: So it's, it's an, it's getting national attention to Nathan
2:26:56
Speaker 1: on the text line. Do you think since we've invested
2:26:57
Speaker 1: so much in bird Finland already that we will keep investing,
2:27:00
Speaker 1: we will keep investing to keep him. It looks like
2:27:03
Speaker 1: Michigan will be shopping for a new quarterback in the
2:27:06
Speaker 1: portal this off season.
2:27:08
Speaker 3: Yes.
2:27:09
Speaker 1: Is the easiest answer. Look, if you're a booster, a donor,
2:27:13
Speaker 1: a business owner, a someone who's about to sell your company,
2:27:18
Speaker 1: and you love bird Ficklin and Devin damp here being
2:27:20
Speaker 1: on the same roster this year, that is costing the
2:27:24
Speaker 1: university of Utah for four and a half million dollars,
2:27:27
Speaker 1: something like that. Next year, if you want to keep
2:27:30
Speaker 1: both of these guys on the same roster, this is
2:27:32
Speaker 1: not an exaggeration. It's going to cost 10 million dollars
2:27:36
Speaker 1: yeah you're probably right and because michigan is your enemy
2:27:40
Speaker 1: here michigan will come in and they will offer one
2:27:44
Speaker 1: of those guys if not both they will offer devin
2:27:48
Speaker 1: hey dev you're more established you had a great year
2:27:50
Speaker 1: this last year we want you to come to michigan
2:27:53
Speaker 1: and just Be the placeholder for us. We're going to
2:27:56
Speaker 1: get this five-star high school athlete. We want you to
2:27:59
Speaker 1: be the starter. We want you to groom him a
2:28:02
Speaker 1: little bit like you've done with Bird. And we're going
2:28:04
Speaker 1: to pay you $ 7 million to do it, right? And
2:28:07
Speaker 1: it's like, whoa! So now Devin gets to go back
2:28:10
Speaker 1: and say, all right, uh, this is, this is what
2:28:12
Speaker 1: Michigan offered me. Can you pay me? I'll give you
2:28:14
Speaker 1: a hometown discount. I'll give you $ 6 million. Meanwhile, Oklahoma
2:28:17
Speaker 1: is going to show up and be like bird. We
2:28:20
Speaker 1: will give you $ 5 million to be our starting quarterback.
2:28:23
Speaker 1: He'll be like, oh no, no, no, no, no. I
2:28:25
Speaker 1: don't know if I want to go there. I'll give
2:28:26
Speaker 1: you a hometown discount, Utah. It'll cost you 4 million
2:28:29
Speaker 1: to keep me. That's 10 million bucks. And by the way,
2:28:33
Speaker 1: I just did that math off the top of my head.
2:28:35
Speaker 1: And that is a total pie in the sky hypothetical.
2:28:38
Speaker 1: But the answer to the question is if you've already invested,
2:28:42
Speaker 1: do you keep investing to try to keep the player?
2:28:45
Speaker 3: Yes.
2:28:45
Speaker 1: A thousand times. Yes. You maximize, you max out the budget.
2:28:50
Speaker 1: You put it on a credit card, you borrow, you rob,
2:28:54
Speaker 1: you steal, you yell at the private equity people. What
2:28:57
Speaker 1: are you here for? If you're not giving me money
2:29:00
Speaker 1: to keep bird Ficklin and Devin damn peer, and Braden pagan.
2:29:04
Speaker 1: What are you doing? You do it all. You, you do,
2:29:07
Speaker 1: you max it out. If you're Morgan Scali, you go
2:29:10
Speaker 1: golfing with every wealthy person in salt Lake city. And
2:29:15
Speaker 1: you just say, Hey, you got 15 bucks. You could
2:29:17
Speaker 1: throw my way. So we can compile that into a
2:29:20
Speaker 1: slush fund and retain some of these players. Maybe even
2:29:24
Speaker 1: go by the way, the protect college sports act that
2:29:28
Speaker 1: if it passes, is going to then, instead of being
2:29:31
Speaker 1: $ 21 million, they're going to say, hey, your salary cap's
2:29:34
Speaker 1: $ 49 million, Utah. Do what you can.
2:29:38
Speaker 3: What?
2:29:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. Maybe even if you're Morgan Scali, you go reverse
2:29:42
Speaker 1: psychology with some of the big BYU boosters and be like,
2:29:45
Speaker 1: we actually don't like this guy at all. It'll be
2:29:48
Speaker 1: really bad for us if we keep him. And then,
2:29:51
Speaker 1: you know, maybe they're, okay, we'll give you, we'll pay
2:29:53
Speaker 1: for you to keep him then. Maybe even try that
2:29:56
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Howard on the text line just sent me,
2:29:58
Speaker 1: we were talking about the helmets earlier, just sent me
2:30:01
Speaker 1: his Rose Bowl helmet pictures. Howard, we will accept your
2:30:05
Speaker 1: donation to put those in the studio here. Thank you.
2:30:10
Speaker 1: Just 50 West Broadway, suite two, or whatever we're at.
2:30:14
Speaker 1: Suite 200. Suite 200? Second floor. Second floor. Now bring
2:30:17
Speaker 1: them on down. I'll take good care of them for you.
2:30:20
Speaker 1: Thanks for sending the picture. They're really cool. They're really
2:30:23
Speaker 1: great helmets. And Howard also loves the ice. dice out white,
2:30:28
Speaker 1: all white helmet. Okay. Look big weekend, Kansas coming to town,
2:30:33
Speaker 1: but you're going to have to feed the family before
2:30:36
Speaker 1: game time. So you're going up to the tailgate. You're
2:30:39
Speaker 1: throwing the watch party barbecue. Southern steer is where you're
2:30:43
Speaker 1: going to get your meats for that. All right. Here's
2:30:45
Speaker 1: what I want you to do. Go down there. 1705
2:30:49
Speaker 1: Redwood road in Saratoga Springs. Tell them you heard about
2:30:53
Speaker 1: it on the Sean O'Connell show and just say, hey,
2:30:55
Speaker 1: I have heard that your marinated steak tips are to
2:30:59
Speaker 1: die for. Dan and Aubrey Gunther will know exactly what
2:31:02
Speaker 1: you're talking about. They'll say, oh yeah, how much you want?
2:31:05
Speaker 1: Be like, I want 10 bleeping pounds of these steak tips.
2:31:10
Speaker 1: They'll say, are you sure? You say yes, because it
2:31:13
Speaker 1: is excellent. They're going to tell you how to throw
2:31:16
Speaker 1: it in the air fryer. It stays moist in there
2:31:19
Speaker 1: somehow miraculously. And then you've got the centerpiece for your
2:31:23
Speaker 1: tailgate or your watch party barbecue from Southern steer butcher
2:31:29
Speaker 1: official meat supplier of the Sean O'Connell show. I've been
2:31:34
Speaker 1: wanting to say that for a lot of weeks now.
2:31:38
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, it does not get any better. 1705
2:31:40
Speaker 1: North Redwood road. in the new Redwood Village down there.
2:31:45
Speaker 1: Tell Dan and Aubrey we sent you. Tell them you
2:31:47
Speaker 1: want to try the steak crust seasoning. You want to
2:31:49
Speaker 1: try the marinated steak tips. You want to try the sides,
2:31:53
Speaker 1: the hot honey chicken crack dip. Maybe you want an
2:31:56
Speaker 1: armadillo egg or two. You will not find higher quality, cleaner,
2:32:00
Speaker 1: better meat in any grocery store than you're going to find.
2:32:03
Speaker 1: It is worth the trip down to Saratoga Springs. 801-895-3101
2:32:06
Speaker 1: or 1705 North Redwood Road. Tell them you heard about
2:32:07
Speaker 1: it on the Sean O'Connell Show. We'll wrap things up
2:32:14
Speaker 1: next with Spence Jackets and some crosstalk on ESPN 700
2:32:18
Speaker 1: and 92.1 FM.
2:32:19
Speaker 4: You are listening to the Sean O'Connell Show, your source
2:32:23
Speaker 4: for the best youth football coverage. Here's OC from the
2:32:26
Speaker 4: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
2:32:34
Speaker 1: Two tickets to Skillet at the Union Event Center, October 23rd.
2:32:38
Speaker 1: If you could tell me at 877-353-0700. Who currently leads
2:32:43
Speaker 1: the NHL in goals scored? Player. Individual player.
2:32:48
Speaker 6: 877-353-0700.
2:32:50
Speaker 1: Who is the top goal scorer in the NHL? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
2:32:54
Speaker 1: Might be someone you're rooting for. Crosstalk coming, as is
2:33:00
Speaker 1: the drive with Spence Checketts. Final segment of the show
2:33:03
Speaker 1: brought to you by our friends at Advanced Window Products.
2:33:07
Speaker 1: 801-850-9100 for the best discounts of the year. Hi, Spence.
2:33:10
Speaker 7: Please analyze... Jack McBain's fight last night.
2:33:15
Speaker 1: My only concern was the biggest punch he landed was
2:33:19
Speaker 1: directly on the forehead. I was going to ask you,
2:33:21
Speaker 1: you can break a hand pretty easily doing that.
2:33:24
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:33:24
Speaker 1: Uh, Jack McBain played after that and seemed to have
2:33:26
Speaker 1: been fine, but that was, that was the only downside
2:33:29
Speaker 1: to that whole fight. Snaps the head on Dylan back completely.
2:33:33
Speaker 1: Molly walked the dude. Uh, but that punch could have
2:33:37
Speaker 1: been That's one where you hurt your weapons a little bit.
2:33:39
Speaker 7: See, that was my thought. And when I saw it,
2:33:41
Speaker 7: I was like, I'm going to ask Sean about that tomorrow.
2:33:43
Speaker 7: Because you don't want to be... Please, for our listeners,
2:33:47
Speaker 7: outline the perfect punch. Where on your hand do you
2:33:49
Speaker 7: want to hit the person and where on the person
2:33:51
Speaker 7: should you hit them?
2:33:52
Speaker 1: Well, first two knuckles.
2:33:54
Speaker 2: First two knuckles.
2:33:55
Speaker 4: Right.
2:33:55
Speaker 2: And anywhere eyes and below is better.
2:33:59
Speaker 1: Or if you hit them in the temple or you
2:34:02
Speaker 1: hit them... Back of the head strikes are illegal, but
2:34:05
Speaker 1: you hit them right behind the ear, that kind of stuff.
2:34:07
Speaker 1: The forehead, you can hurt people hitting them in the forehead,
2:34:10
Speaker 1: but they can also hurt you. Yeah. Like when you
2:34:12
Speaker 1: headbutt someone, you use your forehead. When you're heading a
2:34:14
Speaker 1: soccer ball, you use your forehead. There's a way that
2:34:16
Speaker 1: you can align your spine and such that it's, you know,
2:34:19
Speaker 1: it's a good little weapon for you. So you just,
2:34:21
Speaker 1: you don't want to be punching the forehead.
2:34:24
Speaker 7: I saw your guy, Josh Berkman at yoga.
2:34:26
Speaker 1: Oh, we shout out.
2:34:27
Speaker 2: We practice together.
2:34:28
Speaker 1: Shout out, Josh.
2:34:29
Speaker 2: He's very peaceful now.
2:34:31
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:34:31
Speaker 7: 49 fights total, 17 in the UFC. First of all,
2:34:35
Speaker 7: he said, do you think you could get Sean to yoga?
2:34:37
Speaker 7: I said, no, I do not think I could do that.
2:34:40
Speaker 7: He said, tell, tell, tell OC that I said he
2:34:43
Speaker 7: should start doing yoga. I said, I'll tell him that
2:34:45
Speaker 7: it will not make a difference.
2:34:46
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:34:47
Speaker 7: Do you still spar? I mean, cause Josh likes to,
2:34:50
Speaker 7: he he's working with a lot of kids, right? That's
2:34:52
Speaker 7: kind of his deal. But he says there are times
2:34:55
Speaker 7: where he misses it so much. He likes to Hop
2:34:57
Speaker 7: in and, you know, throw some blows.
2:34:58
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't do it nearly as much as I
2:35:00
Speaker 1: should or as much as I would like to. But
2:35:02
Speaker 1: like last Tuesday, I went down to the gym and
2:35:06
Speaker 1: sparred like 12 rounds. It was fun.
2:35:09
Speaker 2: Do you go to the same gym?
2:35:10
Speaker 3: I do.
2:35:11
Speaker 2: And which gym is that?
2:35:12
Speaker 1: It's Jeremy Horn's elite performance.
2:35:14
Speaker 4: Oh, nice.
2:35:15
Speaker 1: Utah.
2:35:15
Speaker 3: Okay.
2:35:15
Speaker 2: So it's still lower. Didn't Josh go there, too?
2:35:19
Speaker 3: No.
2:35:19
Speaker 2: Oh, he did not.
2:35:20
Speaker 3: No, no, no.
2:35:20
Speaker 1: Josh and Jeremy did not get along. Oh, I have
2:35:23
Speaker 1: new yoga fodder. Josh and Jeremy actually fought each other
2:35:26
Speaker 1: back in the day. Isn't Jeremy a lot bigger than Josh? Yeah,
2:35:29
Speaker 1: they should not have fought.
2:35:30
Speaker 2: How'd that go?
2:35:31
Speaker 1: Well, don't ask Josh about that.
2:35:34
Speaker 2: Oh, Jeremy took it to him.
2:35:36
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:35:38
Speaker 2: You sound like you're bragging because you're a Jeremy guy.
2:35:40
Speaker 1: I'm not bragging. I like Josh. Josh has always been
2:35:42
Speaker 1: really good to me. Josh was at my very first
2:35:45
Speaker 1: MMA fight, and he was already kind of a big
2:35:47
Speaker 1: deal locally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And actually, he was already
2:35:50
Speaker 1: in the UFC. And he, like, Josh was sitting cage
2:35:53
Speaker 1: side at my very first fight and was like, hey, man,
2:35:55
Speaker 1: you got some potential to do this. I like Josh. Okay.
2:35:57
Speaker 1: Me and Josh have always got along. And, you know,
2:35:59
Speaker 1: I grew up at that end of the valley. where
2:36:02
Speaker 1: Josh was like, he's three years, four years older than me,
2:36:05
Speaker 1: and he was kind of a local legend. You heard
2:36:07
Speaker 1: about Josh Berkman beating guys up and that Skyline fight
2:36:12
Speaker 1: versus the Cottonwood kids, and suddenly Berkman came in and
2:36:16
Speaker 1: wrecked shop.
2:36:16
Speaker 7: Everyone's got their local stories. Was he a Skyline kid then?
2:36:20
Speaker 7: I thought he was a Cottonwood kid. I honestly don't know.
2:36:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he was a Cottonwood kid.
2:36:23
Speaker 2: So Jeremy Horn and Josh Berkman didn't like each other.
2:36:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, they didn't get along back in the day. I mean,
2:36:29
Speaker 1: now I'm sure neither of them care.
2:36:31
Speaker 2: It was over a girl, wasn't it?
2:36:32
Speaker 1: No, there's no chance. They're not in the same circles
2:36:36
Speaker 1: with girls.
2:36:38
Speaker 2: I feel like I need to ask a follow-up. Who's
2:36:40
Speaker 2: in the better circle?
2:36:42
Speaker 1: Better is a relative term.
2:36:43
Speaker 2: You know what I'm asking you.
2:36:46
Speaker 1: You would say Josh.
2:36:47
Speaker 2: And so would you. So you will not come to
2:36:51
Speaker 2: yoga hard pass?
2:36:52
Speaker 1: It's not because of Josh's presence. I like Josh.
2:36:55
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:36:55
Speaker 1: It's because... I don't like to do things I'm really
2:36:58
Speaker 1: bad at, and yoga, I'm embarrassingly bad at.
2:37:01
Speaker 7: Bro, I am the worst one in most every class.
2:37:04
Speaker 7: There are like 80, 90-year-olds that really can't move. They
2:37:07
Speaker 7: just go sweat and stretch as much as they can.
2:37:10
Speaker 7: Josh is very good at it. That will not surprise you.
2:37:12
Speaker 7: But it's always interesting to me that I'm looking around
2:37:15
Speaker 7: the room, and I'm wondering if anyone else knows that
2:37:17
Speaker 7: this bro over here, getting his Sebastian on, or whatever
2:37:20
Speaker 7: the hell that word is, namaste.
2:37:21
Speaker 1: Namaste.
2:37:23
Speaker 7: Is like one of the baddest dudes that we have
2:37:25
Speaker 7: around 49 fights, 17 in the.
2:37:27
Speaker 1: US Josh is a, Josh is a bad Josh was
2:37:30
Speaker 1: a real fighter. He did some really good things. I
2:37:34
Speaker 1: think if Josh... He was in the UFC in the
2:37:38
Speaker 1: glory days of the rise to prominence, back when sponsor
2:37:42
Speaker 1: money was huge and they were doing all this... Josh.
2:37:47
Speaker 1: Josh at one point was doing a publicity tour on
2:37:51
Speaker 1: a bus around America with the playmate of the year. What? Yes.
2:37:59
Speaker 2: More yoga fodder. Josh was involved.
2:38:03
Speaker 1: In like a glory days sponsorship wise of the UFC. Okay.
2:38:07
Speaker 1: And he was. I mean, he was like personal friends
2:38:10
Speaker 1: with Dana wide. He was fighting some of the best
2:38:13
Speaker 1: guys in the game. He beat John Fitch demolished John Fitch.
2:38:16
Speaker 1: He's got some like really great stories. I'm sure. But yeah,
2:38:20
Speaker 1: I mean, we have, we're lucky if you're an MMA
2:38:23
Speaker 1: fan and if you're a fan of the local scene
2:38:25
Speaker 1: now and you didn't watch it in the late nineties,
2:38:29
Speaker 1: early two thousands to like 2012, uh, you missed out
2:38:33
Speaker 1: on some of like the coolest stories and the, and
2:38:35
Speaker 1: the best fighters we've ever had come through. And that's
2:38:37
Speaker 1: why it was one of them.
2:38:38
Speaker 7: And that's when I was watching more than, and if,
2:38:42
Speaker 7: if I see that you're on a fight, I'd like
2:38:44
Speaker 7: to listen to you call a fight.
2:38:46
Speaker 2: Cause I think you're really good at it.
2:38:48
Speaker 7: And then if there's a big net, like I've still
2:38:50
Speaker 7: got a couple of friends that are like huge MMA
2:38:52
Speaker 7: heads and I'll text them like, Hey, is there anything
2:38:54
Speaker 7: worth this card this weekend?
2:38:55
Speaker 2: They're like, yeah, watch this dude, that dude.
2:38:57
Speaker 7: But back when it first kind of burst on the scene,
2:39:00
Speaker 7: And UFC was in a pay-per-view event.
2:39:03
Speaker 2: It was like, we would have huge watch parties.
2:39:06
Speaker 1: Yeah.
2:39:06
Speaker 2: 20, 30 people over at a house to watch a fight.
2:39:08
Speaker 1: So, you know what? We should get, we should get
2:39:11
Speaker 1: Josh on just to talk story. One of these days
2:39:13
Speaker 1: is like he, he left Utah and went up to
2:39:15
Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest to train with the old team quest,
2:39:19
Speaker 1: which was Chael Sonnen and Randy Couture.
2:39:21
Speaker 3: Okay.
2:39:21
Speaker 1: Like the original guy.
2:39:22
Speaker 3: Okay.
2:39:23
Speaker 1: It was like, I mean, he's, he's got better stories
2:39:25
Speaker 1: than I'll ever have.
2:39:27
Speaker 7: I want to, I need to learn more about this
2:39:29
Speaker 7: Jeremy Horne, Josh Berkman situation. So did they fight each
2:39:32
Speaker 7: other because they didn't like each other?
2:39:35
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that helped them be willing to fight
2:39:38
Speaker 1: each other. But, yeah, I mean, they fought because they
2:39:42
Speaker 1: were both middleweights at the time, I guess.
2:39:44
Speaker 2: See, I didn't think they were even close to the
2:39:46
Speaker 2: same weight.
2:39:47
Speaker 1: In real life, they're not. Josh walks around probably. He's
2:39:50
Speaker 1: in great shape still. Last time I saw him, he
2:39:52
Speaker 1: probably walks around at 185 pounds.
2:39:55
Speaker 2: He's cut up.
2:39:56
Speaker 1: Jeremy is like 240 now.
2:39:58
Speaker 5: Right.
2:39:58
Speaker 1: But he was a great at cutting weight. Jeremy was
2:40:02
Speaker 1: both legends.
2:40:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:40:04
Speaker 7: Anyway, final offer. I've got a buddy pass for a
2:40:07
Speaker 7: HPF tomorrow morning. You want to, you want to join us?
2:40:09
Speaker 1: What time?
2:40:10
Speaker 2: 10 30. You can't, you have a radio show.
2:40:13
Speaker 3: It starts.
2:40:13
Speaker 1: That's fine. I'll skip it.
2:40:15
Speaker 3: Nice.
2:40:16
Speaker 1: You know what? Me too.
2:40:17
Speaker 2: Then it's about time. We take a stand.
2:40:21
Speaker 1: Oh, stay tuned for the drive. Thanks for listening to
2:40:24
Speaker 1: the Sean O'Connell show. And by the way, Who leads
2:40:27
Speaker 1: the NHL in goals scored? Our very own Nick Schmaltz.
2:40:34
Speaker 1: Congratulations to Casey on the text line. You won some tickets.
2:40:38
Speaker 1: ESPN 700, 92 on FM.